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I used to program using Basic back in my teenage years, today I'm a Unix admin and the closest to programming I do is a little shell and some perl. Certainly, the benefits of such hands on was the development of the necessary logical structures that would later help me relate and understand more complex problems.
What the current "scene" lacks is the broadness of application Basic had, in order to make "something" today you need a lot of tools; the tools are fancy, the presentation flashy, but you can't really see what's going on under the hood, this is partially ok if your later leanings aren't tied specifically to programming or systems engineering. Yet the true value of the experience, specially at a young age, is akin to LEGO, with simple elements your imagination and skills develops to build something complex. This is lost on todays tools, everything is already done (cut/paste) and the joy of striving stifled.
