I took his comment to mean that programming jobs should be kept for people who genuinely care about developing a deep understanding and a willingness to learn, instead of those just typing prompts and not really caring beyond that.
It's a good thing that "interpret people's comments charitably" is one of the top guidelines on this forum then
Every other profession does gatekeeping. Yet we dont see any animosity towards them for doing so. Infact we condone it.