The early computers (for the most part) were von Neumann architecture machines just like modern computers, with an instruction pointer, registers, branching, and so forth that most people associate with conventional software development.

FPGAs are a undifferentiated sea of configurable logic gates with configurable connections between them[0]; it's not quite wiring together bare transistors but it's not that far removed either. None of the elements of a von Neumann architecture are there; if a engineer wants any of those things in their design, they would have to assemble it themselves from the available gates[1]. So, no, building a design for a FPGA has little to do with programming in the sense that most people mean it.

[0] With various special function blocks interspersed at regular intervals depending on the manufacturer and model of the FPGA

[1] or buy a pre-made soft-IP core