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There are indeed, thousands -- at least tens of thousands, possibly more like hundreds of thousands -- doing the EXACT THING that you're complaining about. Kids are ripping apart web pages, web applications, figuring out database algorithms and writing simple scripts to make their own bulletin boards, content management systems, band websites, cool little dohickeys on their myspace pages. Though the mechanism is different, the basics are the same. Flow control, variable manipulation, iteration, functions, boolean algebra... you can't even go all that far without running into basic graph and tree structures.
For people who are into the idea of going further, there have never been more projects available in more languages with more help. I had to save up for computer books, and it'd take me weeks to buy an introduction to programming book that only had a rough chance of being at my level or covering what I was interested in. The internet has completely flipped that idea on its head. Now, if you're interested in learning the basics of computer programming, or what makes a computer tick on a variety of levels, all you need is Google and some time.
It just seems ridiculous to me to bemoan the loss of one, rather limited way of programming, when the doors are open to hundreds of new ways of getting interested in programming.
