Uh, the software industry may have a long way to go compared to where one might want it to be. But it has gone a ways compared to one person writing batch scripts or (the example from the article) one person writing spreadsheets.

It's also worth noting that in places where reliability is worth the massive decrease in productivity (e.g. robots on mars, avionics, etc.) tools like formal verification and multiple implementations for verification of behavior are used.

Those are situations where scientists hire professionals to do the programming, so that supports joe_the_users's point.