I couldn't agree more. My background is similar to your but I went the Analyst programmer path and there has been more than one occasion where I have been grateful for learning my trade under sysprogs who cherished every operation and every slice of memory.
Things aren't so different these days in SAP land and the premise that being a competent programmer is far more valuable than being able to code still holds true. Language is essentially irrelevant in the end ... that's what manuals are for,
These days I run data conversion teams and I will always take programmers and techno-functional guys that understand business processes over those that simply "know ABAP" or "know LSMW".