> But the key difference is that those who "program" spreadsheets can see all of the steps involved.
I would say that that's almost precisely backwards: compared to typical plain-text code, spreadsheets make intermediate results more obvious, while obscuring the steps. (Things like, e.g., scala worksheets or ipython notebooks bridge this gap in a way which makes both the steps and the results clear.)
Yes, I'll agree with that. Users have to poke at the data cell to see what the formula is there - and it's easy to not do this, and be confused why the results are coming out wrong.
I would say that that's almost precisely backwards: compared to typical plain-text code, spreadsheets make intermediate results more obvious, while obscuring the steps. (Things like, e.g., scala worksheets or ipython notebooks bridge this gap in a way which makes both the steps and the results clear.)