Getting dirty with git when you really wanted to build the product sounds a lot more like the zoologist binding and gluing together his notebook in the middle of the forest.
For instance, an analogy with zoologists I would make is knowing how to set up their observation equipment in whatever remote area they're doing their research. They have to do it and they have to know how to do it, and maybe they even have to do troubleshooting in case something is not working quite like it should. None of that has to do with zoology per se, but it is part of a zoologist's job.
They can get better and/or more reliable tools over time? Absolutely, which is what I think most of TFA is understandable. I happen to think that git is already a pretty good tool, but I absolutely do see why many people disagree.