I think the bigest difference between 'creative programmers' and programmers from a traditional computer science background is the perspective in which they look at code, and engineering problems. 'Creative programmers' approach things with an emphasis on the discovery process which, I think, allows them to understand the things they are working on in more of an organic context. Whereas people from a traditional computer science background tend to approach things with a systematic view of the things they are working on.
The difference can look sublte, but it is real. I think having an organic understanding of a product enables 'creative programmers' to build an end to end product (from user interaction to the inner workings), whereas traditional computer science programmers will specialize on a single aspect.