And I don't see why programming has to be the ubiquitous pipedream over any other field, like philosophy. Of course, the main issue is that everyone is different and only a fraction of people are going to have an interest at all in a given niche.
The majority of people can't even do something that is universally uncontroversially good for them like exercise or stay a healthy weight. So I always thought it was funny to think that we'll all sing kumbaya over something that requires effort but with even less global appeal like programming.