That would not have been better, because it implies that seniority implies competence. What differentiates a programmer from a developer in the author's parlan

That would not have been better, because it implies that seniority implies competence. What differentiates a programmer from a developer in the author's parlance isn't merely experience. A lot of newcomers to the field today build prototypes and put them into production, and believe that they got it right because their software is in production. That it's a maintenance nightmare doesn't enter into their minds, and as a result, their next project also turns into a maintenance nightmare. That's a big problem where I work; we have a lot of software clear written by people without even a vague clue about web development (e.g. they don't use the HTTP session for anything, instead using lots of Java code to maintain session data), and instead of learning to write better software, they learn to repeat the same mistakes.