[SassyGrapefruit]

>It was only later, when the young Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) needed to establish computer science as a legitimate field of study that the history got edited to suggest a smooth evolution from theoretical mathematics to computing

This is a bit conspiratorial. I don't think anyone believes the evolution of computing started with us stumbling around in plato's cave until Turing opened the door. Then Boom! the next day we had macbooks. Of course practical and theoretical computing evolved together. This is hardly unique to computer science. What Turing represents is a person that asked(and answered) the big questions. Take a parallel in physics. Lorentz and Minkowski explored obscure mathematical tools, but Einstein shattered our thinking. Turing did something similar.

Why take it back to Babbage? The abacus was in use in the 11th century BCE. This practical device was a tool to solve a problem. Individuals were not asking "Why does the abacus work?", "What does it mean?", "What can I or can't compute with this thing?", "What other applications are there for calculating machines?". We spent 2,000 years using this tool to count things and not much more. Babbage added some mechanization but he wasn't exactly trying to bridge the abacus with consciousness.

Turing was thinking broadly. When we celebrate Turing we are celebrating the formalization. He gave us a deterministic framework for reasoning about computers. He allowed us to consider their limitations, their philosophical implications, and the opportunities they represent. The huge leaps from the 1960's on would not have been possible without his work.