I think so. Here are several possibly unrelated takes that are my own opinion: one is that a “creative practice” at it’s most basic is simply creating something

I think so. Here are several possibly unrelated takes that are my own opinion: one is that a “creative practice” at it’s most basic is simply creating something, and in that sense programming is absolutely creative. It need not be mysterious or artistic or particularly unique or personal, it can be seen as creative if it’s nothing more than new. Another is that I practice digital art on my own, separate from my day job, and the process of making procedural art using a computer is similar in many ways to making art using traditional techniques, I absolutely view programming imagery as creative programming. A third view is that good programming is an art, not a science. We always have lots of options and it can be hard to choose; the people who are best at it are the ones who spend time designing and crafting and worrying about function and form. Deciding on the architecture is usually about balancing goals and understanding your audience. Tuning the performance of code is done best when finding out and thinking about how people perceive it while they use it. I do personally think of writing good code as an artistic process, conceptually similar to my own workflows for writing stories or painting pictures. The tools are different but the ideas are often the same.