I didn't major in CS and I started programming only when I was 20 on my first year at the university, yet I quickly became enthralled with the subject and am now a pretty good well rounded software engineer (got my MSc in physics).

1. It's quite ok to start programming after ones teens and still make a career of it. The basics of programming aren't that hard. It's the systems design aspect which takes a lifetime.

2. Internal motivation for the subject is the key. People are pretty good learners for most of their life.

"Money grab"... Most professional careers demand quite many hours put into it. Some programmers treat their career as a profession, others as just a job. Since there are no authorative qualification bodies on the matter (like for doctors) that's just how the dynamics of personal lives and human nature run.

That said, I don't really see the point in chasing after new technolgies - I have quite a large enough learning load in trying to gain deep understanding of my domain (graphics/computational geometry).