> Conversely, even if you are a coder, classic spreadsheets are extremely useful for any type of ad-hoc reproducible calculation

Again, I still feel like code is the ideal solution to "ad-hoc reproducible calculations"

> the point is that you can cross-reference cell values and copy/paste with relative cell positions to create large calculation tables/matrices, then update base values and perform "what-if" analyses, etc. etc.

I still don't see how you can't do that with code, nor what the spreadsheet is doing that code can't.

> I've used it for all kinds of reports apart from financials (benchmarks, construction/project planning, even a Tic Tac Toe game in school out of boredom).

Sure. It has been proven that excel is Turing complete. But I'd rather use a programming language (a tool that was literally designed for the purpose of writing code), than a clunky spreadsheet. Both can get the job done, I never denied that. But I still don't see the value that the spreadsheet brings over custom code written to solve the exact same problem.