The article concludes with the same point of view I have, which is that thinking like a computer or having an awareness of heuristical thinking and other metacognitive skills should be more of the goal. Learning programming early on is of coin-toss value. Of more value:
1) Being able to systematically determine why something isn't working
2) Designing an agile repeatable process to implement
3) Translating desired outcomes into inarguable and commonly agreed solutions and definitions
4) Mapping out the abstraction layer behind a process
5) Presenting logically consistent data and thinking

Perhaps programming is the best path to these skills, but one-trick "trained" programmers are often missing these skills.