I'm not claiming I'm handicapped. What I'm saying is that a "transferrable skill" is a vague term. We can, if we put our mind to it, transfer skills from just about any domain to another. But just because we can put it (the skill) to continued use, in an altered domain, doesn't meant that others will value it as a transferrable skill. It's kind of like trying to transfer credits between colleges. If they don't recognize the skills you've acquired at your former school as transferrable, you don't get to transfer them, and have to retake classes that may seem pretty redundant.

Because the employer judgement is often shit. So becoming an absolute baddass in $obscure_language isn't good for your CV, even if it can be great for your skills as a programmer.