I am suggesting that he failed to identify what really made those/some programmers better then others.
a very fair comment. Understanding the people he is refering too, it may be a little dificult to pin down on the why side. Someone who consistantly writes code that does the job without massive revisits either can do so or not. Some may know how but dont care. All you can measure is the preformance, not the mental makeup.

And the recruters from the human resources departement (they will do the job of selecting and recruting the most talented programmers).
how can an HR person tell wether someone is a good programmer? Part of the problem is the dificulty of smart IT people recognizing a good programmer via interview. HR is even more at a disadvantage. IT hiring should be done by IT people, let HR manage the 7 million tasks that ensure said employee is paid, medicaled, rested and retired.

As a sysadmin I have met both great and poor programmers. The best I have met come from an EE, Music, Motorcycle mechanic as well as CS backgrounds.
thanx,
bill