You're describing the difference between a "good" and "bad" programmer. That's not at issue. Are programmers better off having a deep working knowledge of data

You're describing the difference between a "good" and "bad" programmer. That's not at issue. Are programmers better off having a deep working knowledge of data structures, algorithms, compiler & OS design? Sure. Do they need to, in order to be (paid, professional) programmers? No.