Nice article, but I'm not sure it's completely right.
Even language's mavens use an IDE, probably a custom one built out of terminal windows, makefiles and so on. And, to my money, this can be effective, but difficult to share and setup.
Emacs, actually is a bit easier to share and setup, in such a context (Emacs IS an IDE), but a bit difficult to learn (and to be honest, to learn again... :-D)
I guess that XMonad born almost like an alternative to Emacs to integrate different tools in a consistent windowing.
Indeed powerful languages are useful to express powerful concepts (thus they are funny!)
Tools are useful for boring activities. For example, editing makefiles (and studing autotools) is a boring activity. :-D
Debuggers are useful to find bugs, another boring activity.
Still both activities are unavoidable (afaik) by professional programmers. You can do both without tools, but they will require more time, thus more annoyance.
This is why, to my money, looking for an IDE (even if it's just a specific configuration of xmonad or Emacs) is a rational search. :-)
BTW, now, I'm wondering if I should give Geany a try or just learn Emacs again... :-)
For example, I'm sure that Emacs can do almost everything I need (project management apart), but I'm also sure that I have no chance to convince my fellow windows programmers to use it.
Giacomo