At least at my university, you can't get a CS degree without a significant amount of programming. Everybody--even the theory people--gets a thorough background going all the way from high-level programming through assembly and even a bunch of EE (it's technically an "EECS" program). Then everybody who isn't specializing in EE or very interested in CS theory does a lot of programming in more advanced courses. On top of this, most people work on some research which also tends to involve a significant amount of programming.
Really, it's not like saying an Art History major could easily learn to paint as much as saying an "Art Practice" major could.
Also, I've found that more CS-oriented people often have a good grasp of software engineering--designing programs, keeping them maintainable, ensuring correctness and so on. On the other hand, non-CS people tend to lack knowledge of theory unless they go out of their way to learn it (and most, unfortunately, don't seem to). It's much easier to get by programming at some company without knowing any theory than it is to learn CS without knowing how to program.
Now, there are obviously CS people who spend very little time programming. But, in my experience, they're relatively rare and tend to stick to academia. Really, they're more like math major who happen to like CS than anything else. The ones like that I've met here also happen to be some of the smartest people I've ever talked to, but that could just be a coincidence.
Really, it's not like saying an Art History major could easily learn to paint as much as saying an "Art Practice" major could.
Also, I've found that more CS-oriented people often have a good grasp of software engineering--designing programs, keeping them maintainable, ensuring correctness and so on. On the other hand, non-CS people tend to lack knowledge of theory unless they go out of their way to learn it (and most, unfortunately, don't seem to). It's much easier to get by programming at some company without knowing any theory than it is to learn CS without knowing how to program.
Now, there are obviously CS people who spend very little time programming. But, in my experience, they're relatively rare and tend to stick to academia. Really, they're more like math major who happen to like CS than anything else. The ones like that I've met here also happen to be some of the smartest people I've ever talked to, but that could just be a coincidence.