[mcguire]

"Programmers are less intelligent, skillful and diligent on average than research mathematicians?"

Keep in mind that there are a lot more programmers than professional mathematicians, and programmers are more likely to be well paid than mathematicians. As a result, mathematicians are self-selected for doing math while most programmers are only in it for the paycheck, on top of the fact that a mediocre mathematician probably isn't going to be able to make a living in math.

"Compare to the world of the working programmer who is judged not by how fast he writes code but by the real world positive impact of that code,..."

I suspect that you have an excessively positive opinion of the work of most programmers. I myself know far too many who are both slow and detrimental to the projects they are assigned.

As for formal mathematical proofs, I bet you will find that most mathematicians don't do them for the same reason that essentially no coffee is verified: it adds a lot of complexity (the same complexity, I suspect) without any obvious benefit.