If what the original commenter said is true about simply replacing keywords with another string, then it's questionable if they are actually learning anything about language design or demonstrating skill.

[–] el_abuelo@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

My first foray into doing anything remotely close to programming was substituting things in other people's TCL scripts. I had no idea what I was doing...but i was somehow getting results.

I curently have no idea how this person did this, and so as a bare minimum id have to learn that in order to know where to start replacing keywords. Maybe it's completely trivial, but the fact remains I do not know and so I would have to learn something.

So yes, even if they're "just replacing keywords" they're still learning something. Even if you consider it trivial or mundane.