I think we have stumbled into the age old debate over what is 'art'. And there is no answer.

I might like to think of programmers as 'craftsman' that can reach some height of achievement/skill to be deemed as 'artisans' in their 'craft'. Maybe like a Dijkstra, or even a John Carmack/Doom.

But to your argument I think. There must be some 'physical' product. So there are some programmers or even accountants that have reached some heights of understanding their craft but their product does not count because it is too ephemeral. There is a necessary quality of a 'repeatable' physical process and forming a physical product to count as 'artisanal'.

A lot of programmers are crap or mid. Just like the woodworker, or chef, that could be great, but most of them are mid or crap.

I'm sure there are a lot of people that shop at Hobby Lobby, that thing of themselves as artisans. But are mostly not.

So you need some combination of a process and also some general agreement of the admirers of the product.

I just fall on the other side of this gray shady line, that programmers and writers, do generally produce something, a product, and they practice to become experts at it. They also have a process that contributes to the product.

Even if like 99% of Chefs, 99% of programmers are crap, with no process and crappy products. They both are producing products, and the best ones have some process.

"Perhaps it is undeserved, because you don't seem to be reading what I wrote."

On this point, I think there is also some bias. You think your points are clear, but frequently people think they are clear because they have their own internal perspective that makes what they write seem clear to themselves. But are not really quite getting it out onto paper. If your points aren't landing, maybe at some point it is not the readers fault for not grasping them. I really have tried to follow yours, and don't think we are even disagreeing that much.

If I was to be intellectually charitable, I think this is probably a case of a very contentious subject that has been argued for a few thousand years, and we jumped into an internet argument in the middle, with very different backgrounds, that can't be resolved.

What is art? Programming isn't the only time this argument has happened when a new medium/technology came into existence. Is photography art? Many think not, many think it is. Can you have an artisanal photographer? Is a portrait painter an artist, but not a portrait photographer? What about metal working, welding, you would say yes? Or Poets, you would say no?