I think I can understand and appreciate many different aspects of Computer science, but programming language theory truly is a bit too arcane and formal for me. I still try to follow it somewhat though (like when the Morning Paper had its nice writeup about RustBelt) and I enjoy learning Rust (which exposes you to the theory underlying its design more than other languages). Maybe it's good that the results of formal methods now find more practical application, so it's easier to get people (who aren't hardcore logicians) interested in the whole topic.