To me, the are big difficulties in comparing programming skills to Go skills.
There are several factors which make it quite different.
- Time:
As a professional programmer, I have spent many years doing what I do every day, virtually 10 hours each day, sometimes more. I cannot even imagine putting that much time into Go. I am not sure even pro players do that consistently, year after year after year... I suspect that if I put the same time and dedication into Go, I would have been a pro player by now, easily. Unless I am just not smart enough, which is very possible.
- Knowledge:
In terms of knowledge, Go moves from broad concepts to increasingly narrow ones, until at some point the nitty-gritty is too fine for my mind to grasp. I guess everybody comes to this point eventually, maybe in different places. In programming, however, the process as I see it is completely different. The basic concepts remain largely the same, (or at least the same depth) - but you need to keep re-learning the technology. In that sense, the difficulty is not as much refining the concepts as adjusting them to work in different environments.
- Dedication:
Programming pays my bills and puts food on my table, it supports my family (especially since my wife is a programmer as well.) I cannot say the same for Go. Thus, I will always treat these two activities differently - Go will never even approach the seriousness with which I treat programming. Go is only a hobby, and will never be anything more for me. Programming is my life. And what's more, to those of us who think Go is their life, I say this: you are either very young, or very naive, or doing great injustice to yourself and your family. Unless you are a pro, of course.
Anyways, in this context, the only sort-of meaningful comparison could be done by an ama Go player and an amateur programmer (or pro Player who is also pro programmer.) I think that Kageyama said something like: amateurs play the game, pros lagour in it. It is a huge difference! Speaking from personal experience, I have not met many amateur programmer who were competent. Including myself - since I used to be ama programmer and ama Go player at some point long time ago...
- Mentality:
From my very limited understanding of Go, I can see some differences in the way I apply my thinking to Go vs. to programming. It is hard to explain in a few words... Go is a lot about psychology, very artistic, but also logical. Ideas do not always need to be correct to work well, sometimes it is enough for them to be surprising... or tailored to specific player. Ideas and moves are very fluid in their evaluation - evaluation might change with the opponent, game type, time of day, etc. Programming is much 'colder' and logical than that - there are still ideas and artistry, but their evaluation is much more binary: they work or they don't.
- Comparison:
In programming, I say that western "civilization" don't need to hide behind nobody! Many programmers I know (of) are among the absolute top of the world - and these are the people I compare myself to (not very favorably, mind you, but still - that's my yardstick.) When somebody says "I am a good programmer" - I assume it is in this context and with respect to the best in the world, even if they come short. Now what about Go? What if somebody in US says "I am a good Go player" - who do they compare themselves to? Local club members, the best of which might be 3k KGS? People talk about "mid-dan level" (I assume KGS) - what does that mean? Is that good? Or would they be laughed out of any asian Go club with that attitude?
In short, if we have a scale of 1-100, with 100 being top of the world, we might be comparing 1-50 on Go scale with 1-100 on programming scale, and asking "how does 25 on Go scale compare to 75 on programming scale?" - not a good or meaningful comparison at all!
All in all, I believe Go and programming are completely different animals. Evaluation is subjective. Its like people asking "what is tastier, appes or oranges?"
Having said the above, there are certain metrics which can be reasonably compared, not sure if it is meaningful, though.
For example:
- Support:
How easy it is to make a living with Go vs, with programming. In this light, programming is infinitely easier. I think this goes both for the West and the East and everything inbetween.
- Enjoyment:
How many hours of learning does it take for a person to start enjoying it? And in this light, Go is infinitely easier - from my experience. I enjoyed Go from the first stone I ever placed on a board, while programming I had to learn for some time before it became truly fun.
- Personal:
What do you, personally, like more? But what does it mean to anybody else if you say you prefere one over the other? Not much, I would say. For the record, I enjoy both, but programming more often. Although there are times when I am tired and I like Go better. However - there are times I like WoW more than both of them, heh...
So I think that before asking such questions, a person should narrow the parameters a lot, and then wonder if the answer will really reaveal anything of value.
PS>
For what it's worth - I think that to become the best in the world, in any field, is equally difficult. But this is all I can say with any conviction, I'm afraid. And even that might be subjective. 
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). Therefore, programming can be much more challenging than playing strategy games, which seems not surprising at all.