I'm don't agree with the article's premise, that "the world needs better data manipulation tools than Excel and Access". Most of my present colleagues are not

I'm don't agree with the article's premise, that "the world needs better data manipulation tools than Excel and Access". Most of my present colleagues are not programmers, and they manage to create relatively complex applications with Excel and a bit of Access. There's no gap between what they can do with their tools, and what I can do with a real programming toolset. Also, I can't see one tool fitting everyone's needs. I have also observed that most non-programmers have an allergic reaction to anything that looks like code, even something as basic as VBA. They'll do acrobatics with all sorts of weird macros, but that's OK because it takes place in a GUI; there's very little syntax to get wrong, or structure to create. I think programmers underestimate the learning/confidence people need to code even a simple program.