Well, I'm pretty sure the people dismissing this for lack of certification are the same people (like myself) who also dismiss the dismissal of all other forms of credentials (licensing, certification, advanced degrees).

HN isn't one person. There are a variety of people here with a variety of viewpoints. To expect consistency in what people say here is to expect disappointment, because you aren't going to get it.

There are a lot of software engineers who don't have any kind of certification, including a degree. Many of us at least know such people, even if we aren't that person ourselves. We're kind of skeptical of anything that says "that person isn't qualified to do this work".

Many other software engineers (I say "other", but it's not a completely disjoint set) see too many people show up at interviews (or even on the job) who can't program. Like, can't program at all. They'd like some way to weed them out.

And then some other people look at this program from a purely selfish point of view, and say "Learning some stuff might help my career, but I can do that without this program. But learning some stuff with a certification would help my career more..."