Yes, sometimes it's that, but what I've observed in the field is self-inflicted by programmers. It's the impostor syndrome. They don't know, but they don't want to show that they don't know. They look around for clues of what to choose. Monkey see, monkey do. And then, like monkeys, they bash their keyboard until it seems to work.
Sometimes, you can avoid contact with this mediocrity, but often you don't and you're forced to play in this swamp.