I used to think like you, until one day i read D.L.Parnas' paper "A Rational Design Process: How and Why to Fake it" (http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~perry/education/SE-Intro/fakeit...). I then could understand Dijkstra's pov. He was advocating for rigor in Programming and that the very effort reqd. to hew to his ideal would result in better Software. That is the gist of his argument.

Unfortunately, Humans are heuristic, pattern-matching, infinitely adaptable organisms and hence absolute rigor is very difficult. The fact that programming languages are so evolved that one can easily code-up any incoherent stream of consciousness and still have the system-as-a-whole work in some fashion is what has contributed to both the boom (anybody can contribute) and mess (quality sorely lacking) in the industry.

PS: Never ever dismiss pioneers like Dijkstra, Hoare, Wirth and others offhand. They built up the Fundamental Theory, Science and Tools which directly led to today's Computer Industry and its effect on Society.