I do think that the "iPad" (tablet compute in general) is the very best case for "visual" interfaces to programming, yes. Although even then, you would have to find some way to keep spaghettification under check! It might also be that the best case there is more of something FORTH-like (albeit with types and other convenience features we do expect these days): minimize syntax, while making the most use of what's ultimately a rather limited input bandwidth.
You make a good point about other syntaxes like FORTH-likes. That's an interesting concept that I hadn't considered! (Note, for a more "modern" take on FORTH, check out Factor[1])
As for spaghettification, I honestly don't see visual languages any different from textual languages in this respect. Yes, most visual code you see in the wild is horribly spaghettified, but the bulk of this code is also written by non-programmers who never learned software engineering principles (DRY, abstractions, proper naming, factoring, etc etc) and textual code written by the same class of people, in my personal experience, is just as spaghettified. Sometimes worse, even, because I can't put my finger on a line and trace it, I literally have to text search and mentally trace where named things connect.
PS: Even though I don't quite agree with you, I appreciate the discussion! This is how ideas that may eventually lead to a workable solution are formed :)
On spaghettification (great word, it's like a constant fight against entropy): I see a parallel between visual/codeless programming and domain-specific languages (esp. of "low code" category).
As the user/application reaches a certain level of advanced usage, visual/low-code representations tend to turn into a big ball of spaghetti. As you pointed out, the reason I think has much to do with how the user is not familiar with programming concepts and organizing logic.
On the other hand, I imagine it's possible to have a language/IDE that encourages good program organization naturally and intuitively, to guide and support managing complexity..
Well, this topic is deep and endlessly fascinating. Contrary to the originally posted article and its call of "doom", I'm more hopeful that the field of software development will continue to explore new and creative approaches.
