Why Can't Coding Be Celebrated Like Art or Sports?

Not sure that's the right distinction. Many people watch performing artists or professional athletes and wish they could do what they see, regardless of whether or not they realize they could not (and some who definitely cannot don't realize that they can't).

Very few people, relatively speaking, can read source code at all, and even fewer think wow, I wish I could have written that. Some do, for sure.

Very few people, again, relatively speaking, who only use software wish they could write it, or have the slightest inkling of what it takes to operate, say, Microsoft 365. And almost nobody wants to do it.

Many, many people wish they could have been Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, or Simone Biles, to name only a few. Comparatively, almost nobody has even heard of Ken Thompson or Niklaus Wirth, let alone wanted to be them.