Yes it's not unique in principle, but programmers find themselves having to do UI design (or at least contribute to it) way more often than lawyers, nuclear physicists or beekeepers ;) That's why this issue keeps returning.

There's also the (absolutely false) notion that designing interfaces somehow is a subset of a programming skillset, so if one is a proficient coder, they're by definition capable of delivering sensible UI solutions, pretty much like an academic could teach in their field in high school since they already know more than enough