This dichotomy keeps popping up in the comments. I think Academia is resolving and leveling up beyond this. https://eecs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/abet_letter_to...

Also when MIT moved to python vs scheme not to dumb down the CS, but to more emphasize combing and programming complex systems on the fly (robotics etc).

It's a branch of mathematics which wouldn't be considered a single branch without the practical concerns of programming driving it. You have everything from computability, sure, but you also have queuing theory (networking), formal grammars (parsers, compilers), relational algebra (database queries), and whatever else I'm forgetting, all under one banner, because all of them are useful to the same practical field.

I guess I should return my PhD that was full of measurements and experimental work.

These artificial categories are fuzzy and not very useful.

The last 10 years of seeing Academia decide what is a valid has convinced me Academia has limited weight in the real world.

Don't sweat their opinion, Industry drives the world.