I see your point now. You know the way they go for hard-hitting headlines. I interpreted it more as "one of the causes" than "the sole cause."
If all you want to do is write CRUD apps, the book is not for you. That being said...
To quote directly fromt a quote in the book, "Now I see with eye serene, the very pulse of the machine." I finally jumped the gun and started reading it during the summer after my acquiring my bachelors. I finished the first volume during that summer. Here are some notes:
The Mathematical premliminaries reads like a novel if you have some mathematical maturity, you don't dwell too much on the sections that are over your head, and you treat the exercises as optional. This is because the book can be read from a HS level all the way through the Post-Grad level. Choose your depth.
The MMIX approach was eye-opening because it opened my eyes to see computers as the 'computing' machines that they are. I indirectly gained a fundamental understanding how everything starts with the CPU. I started seeing all the high-level languages (C++, Python, Rust, Java, etc...) as the abstractions that they are. It is liberating if you have ever felt the uneasiness when you are programming in a high level language when you are nagged by the question "how is the computer doing this?"
Algorithms and Data Structures( a.k.a Information Structures in vol 1): It is like going to grammar school for algorithms! Have you ever asked yourself "Why are we learning all of these abstract things about algorithms and data structures?" I got my answer from the book. What I mean by this is that after studying Knuth's approach to algorithms, you gain a firm, fundamental, and concrete understanding of their necessity, their role. Afterwards ANYTHING I would encounter on Hackerank or Leetcode became digestible. You gain a "first principles" understanding of algorithms and information structures.
I believe that the book stands the test of time largely because of these points.
If you have programmed to the point where you've been exposed to some sorting algorithms and some data structures and you want to continue the road to becoming an expert programmer on a firm footing, it is worth the time and effort. The caveat that I would add is do not wait until you finish all the books before you enter the job market or write software out of your own interest.