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Mostly systems programming. In particular, he wrote its graphics system, then rewrote it, then rewrote it again. He led Plan 9 for many years. So, he has plenty of experience in systems programming.

What he seems to lack IMHO is sufficient curiosity about computing innovations not produced by him or the prestigious institutions he has worked for (Bell Labs, Google).

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There's multiple levels of experience. Someone can get really good at the technical solutions without learning what the human problems are and how to solve them.

For example, someone might dismiss IDEs as being unnecessary because technically the same job can be done without them by a superior human being, so the solution is to just be a superior human being.

Or as another example, someone could completely dismiss syntax highlighting as being useless for the superior, implying that the solution to the problem syntax highlighting solves is to just also become a superior human being.

There are multiple layers to any solution, and if one of them is missing, the others are kind of shaken out of balance.

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