I think the key word here is "intensity".

For example, it is typical in martial arts to hear people bragging that they did Kung-Fu for 5 years or Karate since age 10. But if the training was nothing more than a 30 min warmup once or twice a week at a downtown studio with "World of Karate" sign, it is actually worse than not having any training at all. People with such training track genuinely overestimate their ability and put them self through unnecessary health risks.

Someone who followed peer-reviewed journals on software and design and implemented complex system in a 5 year span is simply going to be better anyone who did HTML/Javascript websites for 20 years, no matter what their age difference is or when they started programming.