Because programming and a computer science degree aren't the same thing, at least not in the way that being a physicist and a physicist degreee are. Computer Science is much more about the theory than the doing, and programming is much more about the doing than the theory. As i see it, programming is CS as to engineering is to its physics underpinnings. Now, you might say that you need a degree to be considered an engineer, and that's true. But there's also a long tradition of self builders, tinkerers, and people that just genereally get things done. Take the Wright Brothers for example - bicycle mechanics (not degreed engineers) tinker and come up with an airplane.