The marketplace decides these things not esoteric arguments about polymorphic inheritance. What probably pisses the debater about "web programmers" is that they

The marketplace decides these things not esoteric arguments about polymorphic inheritance. What probably pisses the debater about "web programmers" is that they can make huge fortunes from these things where as most "systems programmers" do not. For the most part no one who writes cheques cares that someone decreased the cycle count a context switch. It's a poor value prop. The outlier in this axis is HFT where someone might care and the programmers fully understand and communicate the value they create. Yes, someone can position faster context switches as something they care about and the person who does that will get cut a cheque, and that's basically what "web programmers" do. We market the incredibly difficult work of "systems programmers". The closer to the metal you are the further you are down the food chain. Is Linux harder to program than early incantations of Facebook? Probably. Is Zuck going to make more money from his PHP webapp than Linus from will from his C Kernel? Probably.