> If you can describe an acceptable algorithm with enough detail in words, you can code it.

I wouldn't take that for granted. It's easy to gloss over details and edge cases when talking through an algorithm and it's not apparent until you actually write the code. Similar things happen when discussing things in meetings vs writing a formal document. I've interviewed plenty of people that were able to quickly come up with algorithms to solve a problem but really struggled to translate them into code.

I can. You can. But apparently, not everyone can.