I used to feel this way. So, in large I want to agree with you. However, the syntactic affordances of languages doesn't really do this justice. In the same way that writing an outline of a novel is not the same as writing a glossary to go with it.

Basically, if there are any parts of the program that you would describe differently in conversation, then it isn't the same thing.

Now, I fully grant I am getting close to a scotsman argument. I also grant that this is not necessary to write bug free software. However, I do see them as different things.