> Coder, programmer, software engineer call yourself whatever you want, the point is to make a computer do what you want it to do.

The distinction is important because how you make the computer do things is important in many cases. At one end of the spectrum, your wasting resources if you have a software engineer working on a program that will be used for 5 years. At the other end of the spectrum, you're setting yourself up for pain if the program is going to be in use for 30 years (or is safety critical, or must produce verifiable results, or ...).

This isn't to say that the "hierarchy" should reflect some sort of software developer social class. It's just different skill-sets for different purposes.