I'm not implying that it caused there to be more bad programmers, just that it caused the number of programmers overall to explode, and that probably adds a lot

I'm not implying that it caused there to be more bad programmers, just that it caused the number of programmers overall to explode, and that probably adds a lot of noise to any observations about older vs. younger programmers. I agree with you, but I also started learning to program with a Commodore 64 when I was six, so I'm probably a bit biased. :)