Sure, you can teach just about anyone to perform simple programming tasks but that doesn't mean they possess the knowledge, experience, and problem solving abil

Sure, you can teach just about anyone to perform simple programming tasks but that doesn't mean they possess the knowledge, experience, and problem solving ability to actually be a competent programmer. The thing you're forgetting is that development involves a lot of abstract thinking and years of understanding how "A" fits into "B". People with basic knowledge of a programming language can bang out easily conceptualized tasks like plotting their car's monthly gas mileage but ask them to write a simple Twitter clone and you're likely to receive blank stares. A seasoned developer could knock that out in an afternoon though (not at real Twitter scale of course!) because they have years of experience knowing how dozens of loosely-related systems and libraries can be assembled to create the bigger picture. Saying that knowing how to "code" means anyone can create anything is like saying that anyone can paint the Mona Lisa given a canvas, paint, and a six week bootcamp session.