I don't think we disagree. I didn't say you were likely to become a GREAT programmer without reading, or even that it is far easier with formal training from competent teachers.
My point, rather, was to say that for a great many jobs, jobs that most of us here on HN might turn our nose up at, but programming jobs nonetheless, you can survive without that reading.
I would even go on to say that the vast majority of programmers out there doing the job day to day, perfectly adequately no less, have never read any of the tomes we hold so dear.
Could they be more effective if they had? Sure. Could their processes be improved? Absolutely. And I'd be the first to say they should. I do want to live in a utopian world where everybody reads HN, cares about worst case runtime and stresses over the density and color of their code.
But realistically, as in any other field, only a small fraction of people are interested in learning their field to that degree, and the rest are perfectly fine being (merely?) adequate. That's ok because there are a great many jobs perfectly suited for them.
But again, the point of the article is not how to create the next K&R. My goals are much simpler, much more modest. I just want functional programmers, at the basest level. And as you said, at the beginning, there is just not substitute for time in front of a keyboard.