Again, you're projecting things nonsensically into non-programming fields. There are plenty of wannabe programmers out there who simply like computers or like

Again, you're projecting things nonsensically into non-programming fields. There are plenty of wannabe programmers out there who simply like computers or like the idea of money in the field, who regardless of age cannot muster the required abstract thinking as applied to programming to be a developer that can put out minimum-acceptable-quality code. Regarding your last sentence, that's why I've been careful to call it a "skill", because it can be exercised, apprenticed, and gleaned. But for some people it just never gels. This isn't the distinction between "10x programmer" and "regular programmer", it's the distinction of "has programmer skills" and "does not have programmer skills". And as much as the pointy-haired inclined hate it, software development heavily involves creativity and bespoke research, for which there's no reasonable objective skill measure besides simply doing the work.