What's not the way the world works? That people don't learn things in the right order? Do you really believe that people need to perform right away? So, first year pre-med students are doing cardio-thoracic surgery?
I just know from experience that the focus at universities is not on the lower level like assembly and pointers and such, but more on software engineering in general.
They can design an application, but they're generally not very good at implementing it.
Only people who are 'hardcore' like the older generation was, and do their own studying, get a deeper insight in programming and optimization.
However, quite a few of those never grew along with the software, and fail to see the bigger picture. Software development today is nothing like it was 20 years ago.
If your version really is the way things work, why not work to fix it?
I'm in no position to do so. A lot of people don't seem to want to know everything about programming anyway. They just want to make money and get a career.
I see programming as an artform, which is why I am a demoscener. But I can't expect most people to see things the way I do.