You’re assuming “kiddies” means literal children, but no. It means skill level.
The problem with scripts kitties is that they’ll only use pre-existing pen-testing tools, maybe those tools work maybe they don’t, either way the script kiddie learns nothing.
To be a real hacker you need to bare minimum learn a programming language and seek to learn the interworkings of a computer.
Script kiddies tend to not even attempt to learn.