[apotheon]

I dunno. I think you're reading a lot into that train-wreck of a sentence.

software engineer: write the software

programmer: write the instructions for a computer to use that software

That doesn't actually line up very well with what you said. I think you're trying to interpret these words within the realm of your own knowledgeable perspective, rather than seeing it from the point of view of someone who probably doesn't even know what the word "software" really means -- like Cindy Perman (the author of this terrible article).

I think Cindy tried paraphrasing some random definitions without actually understanding them well enough to understand them, attempting to transliterate the definitions from terms too technical for her walnut-sized brain to terms she found more comforting, and hosed things up so badly that (like the credulous customers of a fortune teller) we impose our own interpretations on what she said to it seem true.