Of course, inside the profession, one often prides oneself with that label. But look outside of the profession and the connotation gets closer to the dictionary meaning of the word "nerd".
Many people, who do not understand the most basic computer things, still think of "nerds" as "monkeys" sitting at a computer all day, doing something less relevant, not "having a life". Most people don't understand the profession of computer jobs. They see it as something inscrutable of dubious value. (And to be fair, often the greater picture our software serves to achieve is of dubious value.) It is not really like many other jobs, of which you could explain roughly to the next person on the street how the job is done. Before for example a software engineer gets to explain how some code they wrote works, the other person has long zoomed out. And before one gets to explain that it is a craft and what the art about it is, most people have fled. Not many are willing to listen to what fascinates a "nerd".
With that lack of understanding often come tendencies to wanting to associate with other people, rather than that person, whose job one does not even understand. And those "nerds" they have weird interests anyway, right? One couldn't engage in social activities with them, right? You may say those are superficial people and you may be right. But the world is full of such people.
In the end "nerd" is just a bag of stereotypes, that don't apply as often as most people think. Perhaps a "geek" is a friendlier word.
I think your vocabulary is out of date. Nerd and geek are synonyms in common tongue and neither carry much weight to them anymore. You like Marvel? You're a nerd. Ignore that they're one of the most successful brands in the world now
Many people, who do not understand the most basic computer things, still think of "nerds" as "monkeys" sitting at a computer all day, doing something less relevant, not "having a life". Most people don't understand the profession of computer jobs. They see it as something inscrutable of dubious value. (And to be fair, often the greater picture our software serves to achieve is of dubious value.) It is not really like many other jobs, of which you could explain roughly to the next person on the street how the job is done. Before for example a software engineer gets to explain how some code they wrote works, the other person has long zoomed out. And before one gets to explain that it is a craft and what the art about it is, most people have fled. Not many are willing to listen to what fascinates a "nerd".
With that lack of understanding often come tendencies to wanting to associate with other people, rather than that person, whose job one does not even understand. And those "nerds" they have weird interests anyway, right? One couldn't engage in social activities with them, right? You may say those are superficial people and you may be right. But the world is full of such people.
In the end "nerd" is just a bag of stereotypes, that don't apply as often as most people think. Perhaps a "geek" is a friendlier word.