I'm 20 years into my career and know how to program competently. I have missed out on job opportunities because I don't have any credentials other than experience. I'm the type of person who would test out of everything immediately because I already know it. Guessing it's similar for this fellow.
Merely a matter of degree? There is a chasm between stealing data and printing nonsense to stdout.
That's like saying getting all your limbs cut off is technically a flesh wound and the only difference between that and a papercut is the degree of the wound.
That's exactly backwards. He wasn't granted permission to run code on other people's machines, he granted other people the right to run his code on their machines!
Actually I think the brussel sprouts is an apt analogy. People got so used to the M&Ms they stopped looking into the bowl and just ate whatever they plucked out of it. I think that's a perfect analogy.