In some ways, software is like law (or accounting) - why do we pay lawyers so much money, even though in many cases we can simply file the paperwork ourselves? Why do we pay someone else to file our taxes, while we can do it ourselves? Being a "decent lawyer" is a very valuable skill, so is being a "decent programmer" or "decent anything". Just because something is not difficult to do, doesn't mean people would actually do it. They are busy, they don't like to learn something new, programming doesn't interest them etc.
Every skill is valuable. What is trivial for us, could be very difficult for someone else, and vice versa.
> In some ways, software is like law (or accounting) - why do we pay lawyers so much money, even though in many cases we can simply file the paperwork ourselves?
This is because the simple case (ie, everything goes well) for both programming and most law (leave aside liitgation) are usually straightforward.
The problem comes in exception handling. This is the 80/20 pareto split (80% of labor done on 20% of scope) - at this point, even a good lawyer/programmer may have difficulties getting things to work properly.
Every skill is valuable. What is trivial for us, could be very difficult for someone else, and vice versa.