Have you seen how the usual mathematician/physicist programs? They "google as they go", looking up everything, copy-pasting from stackoverflow, etc.

Oh I thought you meant CS academics. With that I (semi-)agree with you, physics professors can't code for shit.

I only semi agree because this seems to be a phenomenon of an older generation. Newly minted PhDs are often much more proficient in programming, since they usually have received a much stronger education in that regard.