Yep. OP fell into the classic trap of making generalizations across two COMPLETELY different fields despite only having knowledge in one of them. I got my PPL nearly a decade ago (obv a far cry from ATP but still) and it's ludicrous to try to compare the skill sets of computer science to piloting.
That's it. Piloting isn't easy, and you do have to study a lot, but it is rote memorization for the most part.
That is a completely different kind of thing than the kind of thinking that we do in programming. One isn't better or easier than the other, just different.
