In my professional life I haven't found spreadsheets to be a "gateway drug" to programming for people I work with. Spreadsheets are generally used to get something done and then take on a life of their own until they are so critical to a business that their failure can cost enough money to materially damage a business. However, there does seem to be something accessible spreadsheets that perhaps can be used in a slightly modified way to get more people excited about learning to code in a structured programming language.