In general, while theory has great value, it's more as a stepping stone to higher study than as an end unto itself. Few computing pros submit proofs among their deliverables. And devising the theta bound on a function or resolving the terms of a CSP simply don't deliver much value when working outside PhD-level R&D labs and writing peer-reviewed papers.
I believe there's a great deal of value in applied non-PhD track academic programs like GT's online discount offerings, especially in serving professionals and employers. I also believe it's high time that universities clued in to the unmet need that most of us post-academics face toward helping us continuously re-educate ourselves as we progress through our careers. Few of us pros can return to campuses, even part-time. Distance learning meets a crying need. And when done right and priced-right (as I believe GT does), I have nothing but kudos to offer in return. I say, more power to GT's authors, curators, and administrators who made this possible. And to all who make this greatly empowering service possible: thanks, and keep up the good work.
If you want to play around with theoretical computer science, get your PhD. College educations are too expensive to not be imminently practical.
It's a waste of time to teach industry tools at a university. It's much more valuable to be taught fundamentals. Know your fundamentals well and any new tech will be much easier to learn. It's long-term thinking - put in the investment to make sure you can change skillsets in the future.
All the things you mentioned tend to be ephemeral and change a lot within a few years. Look at the git monoculture that's sprung up in the last 5 years for example - 10 years ago it might have been reasonable to teach SVN.
You have to do programming assignments anyway. Why wouldn't you require students to learn and use the latest source code control tools while they're doing their development?
Teach students to write tests, use source code control, utilize continuous integration, etc.
Although the specific tools, languages, and approaches will evolve in the coming years - none of the above are going away soon.
Time spent making undergraduates use git is time that could be spent teaching them long-term, fundamental skills.
there's no better way to learn something difficult than to learn it when you're young
Hmm, define 'young'. I'm in my late 20s and I find it easier to learn new things more than ever - including things I failed to learn in my teens and early 20s. Maybe I'm just a late bloomer, and it took me a while to "learn how to learn". But maybe I'm still young in the eyes of someone who has been using vi for 30 years (:
Testing ect is usually covered in all intro classes (assert libraries) or industry type testing like JUnit by a software engineering elective typically taught in Java
Just because one of gits key abstractions is based on a kind of graph, I don't think it follows that knowing graph theory means you know git. I mean LISP is based on a graph structure as well but plenty of people find that confusing.