That's exactly the difference the author means. Programmers like to know about this as a means to better achieve things or purely as a hobby, exercise for the mind. People who pursue a PhD go beyond that, and are simply interested in the absolute truths (in the Platonic sense).
But he said "they don't care", as if pursuing a career writing software usually means you aren't interested in those absolute truths. And I'm saying maybe you are, but you want your job to be about something else.
Purely scientific questions like P!=NP are interesting to more than just academics. A Brief History of Time has sold over a million copies, and I bet mostly not to physicists.
