Architects are artists too and plenty of art incorporates computers. Don't underestimate artists. They'll learn any skill required to express themselves.
Let me clarify, then. What I meant by "artists" was people whose thing is "making two-dimensional art". A group which I am included in.
To most artists of that type I know, the idea of just recording a Photoshop macro to automate a repetitive task is getting into the dark arts. Command lines are scary places to them.
And that's discounting the 2D artists who work in physical media because "computer art has no soul".
There are exceptions - I mean, I used to futz around with assembly programming on my c64 and Amiga, there are people whose visual medium is Processing, there are people making games who are comfortable with one foot in the imagery and one foot in the code - but I am pretty sure that "emacs meet pixels" would not find much traction with the people who use Photoshop as a canvas.
I mean, if "Photoshop" to you is "a bunch of image filters", then sure, we already have "emacs meets pixels" in the person of ImageMagic. But to a 2D artist, Photoshop is not "a bunch of image filters"; it's "paintbrush and canvas".
Architecture is by and large a problem solving business. The sorts of problems it solves are by and large the problems of wealthy and powerful organizations. Architects have a reputation for expressing themselves as a proxy for building something for themselves since the ability to self-fund projects is rare.
To put it another way, a piece of software can be the important artefact. The design for a building is rarely the important artefact. By "making the design his own" an architect produces something for himself, but this is not the important [public] artefact. Moreover, making the design an expression of the architect is often in conflict with the objectives of the client. Guild like structures allow architects to express themselves in ways contrary to the interests of their clients.
Yes, there are projects where developers want architects. Much of the construction industry, however, sees architects as a necessary (or unnecessary) drag upon the project's objectives. Regulatory requirements for an architects involvement are the basis of many an architect's business.
Frank Gehrey is the outlier. AutoCAD LT is very common.
