Scratch seems to be reasonably successful in teaching kids to code [1].
But a large visual blocks program is as incomprehensible, if not more, than a pure textual representation.
Whether text or visual, the challenge for IDE's is the ability to hide detail of large codebases in a way that still preserves the essential logic and allows modifying it. Folding/unfolding code blocks is the primary available tool but its only a primitive way to reduce visual clutter, not a new visual abstraction that can stand on its own.
But a large visual blocks program is as incomprehensible, if not more, than a pure textual representation.
Whether text or visual, the challenge for IDE's is the ability to hide detail of large codebases in a way that still preserves the essential logic and allows modifying it. Folding/unfolding code blocks is the primary available tool but its only a primitive way to reduce visual clutter, not a new visual abstraction that can stand on its own.
[1] https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=all