"If coding is easy, how come programmers were in high demand, and have demanded large salaries for years"

It's like saying 'Lawyers write documents!' for their job ... no, that's just an artifact.

Architecture, Systems, State, Integration, Algorithms, Pipelines, Platforms, Ops, Design, Communicating with other Eng, Working on a Team, Understanding Product/Product Marketing Requirements ... and of which the 'code' is just a small bit of the written part.

Honestly ...