>Sure, but has anyone claiming the opposite done rigorous analysis? Is there any evidence that having a CS degree makes for better programmers than not?

I'm not making that claim, you're the one making a claim that people with degrees other than CS are better programmers without evidence.

I'll only make the claim that a CS degree made me a better programmer. Specifically the upper level theoretical classes. I can verify that there are many problems I've solved because I realized that the problem I was working on had already been solved 50 years ago.

I also worked about a decade as a professional programmer without a CS degree, before I went back. Personally I am a better programmer.

Would I have been an even better programmer had I taken another few semesters of math classes instead of CS classes? Who knows? Absent any other evidence though, the simplest explanation is that domain specific knowledge is likely useful.

>I'm not thinking about people who stood out as particularly unusual. Most of the time I didn't find out which field someone's degree was in until months into working with them.

The point is that the more unusual someone's background is, the more likely you are to remember it. Particularly if there is some confirmation bias involved.