The main issue I have with the "please don't learn to code" movement is that it's pure whining, it does nothing to solve the purported problem. "Do what you love" is far from new advice. People who do what they love do not need encouragement or (much) guidance. The problem is with the rest of us. People spend a total of years of their lives watching (non educational) TV. I'd rather they learn to code JavaScript instead, if there's something that motivates them. Yes, of course it would be even better if they learned to solve problems in general or to communicate better or to play the violin or what not. But, you know what? Codecademy and friends are already there, offering a structured way to empower people to do things they thought were out of their league. And they aren't forcing anybody to subscribe and try to learn. By all means, start a solvecademy or communicademy, I'm all for it. But let people decide what they want to do with their time. Whenever you take people off TV and Facebook and get them to instead acquire a skill, it's a net benefit to society. And when you whine and say don't without offering a similarly guided way to acquire a different skill, you are not adding value. You are just whining.

People should learn what they want to learn, for any reason (yes, even hyped marketing campaigns), with only a few exceptions related to wackos learning how to make and use weapons, mostly. Now, I agree that as professionals the focus shouldn't be on (just) programming and that research and communication skills are more important in general than programming skills. This is irrelevant to the point. Unless you are planning to design a course that most people could follow on those topics.