I think you're right. System thinking and abstraction are natural talents. Not everyone is good at them.

I used to know someone who didn't get basic algebra. She wasn't stupid in other ways, but she just couldn't make that leap from arithmetic to the first level of symbolic abstraction.

If you spend all of your time working with people who find abstraction easy, it's hard to understand that a lot of people really don't.

note that I said training or talent, I don't think these topics are secrets only accessible to few, but thinking the tool is the craft is misguided. Even in college, I'd use C or Java blindly and made a mess. Anyways, you need to ensure some ideas are understood before letting people "program".