[alyrik]

It's a general question, but the linked article explores it from a few angles of different kinds of career :-)

It agrees with your points - a split into applied and theoretical would probably be a good thing. The programmers I work with in the UK seem to come from physics/mathematics backgrounds, or electronic engineering, with just a few CS graduates. All of them (even the CS graduates) feel that a large proportion of what they learnt on the degree is irrelevant to their career going forwards. A degree focussing on practical software engineering would probably be very useful!