The users want to submit and upvote this, I don't see a problem.

Because users upvote offtopic and worthless crap constantly. It's the reason why there are separate subreddits for /r/gaming vs /r/games. As subverses get popular they tend to turn into junk as low effort, low value stuff is voted up more often than other more valuable, but higher effort topics.

Stuff like this just doesn't belong on a programming subverse just because it's tangentially related to the topic. Just like I don't want to see screenshots of people's cakes that have some "funny code" in the icing.

Personally, I would start out with some form of web development. Just learning some basic HTML/CSS/Javascript to start gives you a flexible and useful experience with technologies that are extremely common in our current situation. Not to mention a basic website is a great environment for trying things and seeing an immediate result.

If all the nitty gritty is abstracted away right from the beginning...

I think this is for a good reason. Without context, knowing the nitty gritty details of computer science isn't going to be easy or even really helpful. The reason its almost universally suggested to start with higher level language is that, at the beginning, the most important thing is to get a new programmer thinking like a programmer. Overwhelming them with low level complexities (again, without any context as to why the information matters) is a good way to discourage people early.

I honestly have no problem with discussing things that happen on Reddit on Voat. Its part of a larger discussion on how the site should be run/handled.

I just don't think we need to be discussing that Reddit stuff on /v/programming. As mod actions on Reddit aren't related at all to programming.

Yeah, as interesting as the topic is. It definitely shouldn't be on /v/programming.