At the beginning of my professional journey I was coding along youtube tutorials to learn, and I can tell you for a fact that all writing reinforces is syntax, which is reinforced regardless when you build your own projects while you develop your decision making skills at the same time.

Writing certainly reinforces more than that when you're not just starting out. It's a poor learning tool. When you have no grasp at all of the meaning, yes, it'll only enforce the syntax you can grasp at that point. I'll maintain that it's a good reinforcement tool, especially to the ends mentioned in the article.