Because most humans are functional enough to understand the concepts of metaphor and allusion.

No rational person would read this headline and assume that some cosmic force prevents you from coding Dwarf Fortress unless you have a math PhD. Therefore the most reasonable conclusion is that the creator of Dwarf Fortress does have a math PhD, and that it provided significant transferrable skills. That this is not what the headline says on a literal reading does not prevent a reader even with zero familiarity on the topic from correctly understanding it.

Spam won. The entire web is spam now. It's all deceptive crap trying to grab your eyes. That's why we accept clickbait headlines as normal.

more clickbait -> more views -> more ad impressions -> more money -> more marketing -> more market share -> more clickbait

it's a competitive advantage.