I don't think Knuth's work is canon in our specific industry, be it web dev, system dev, or whatever it is people around here are doing. Knuth belongs to Academia, not industry.
I am sorry that you feel this way. Software Engineering and Computer Science are thoroughly academic topics that every practicing IC and manager can greatly benefit from reading and digesting. Bill Gates put as an endorsement of TAOCP that he would hire (in industry) anyone who mastered the topics therein. Did you not go to university? Even if you didn't, where was the source of your education? Knuth wrote books that could belong to undergraduate level programming courses.
I have read a few chapters of TAOCP for fun but I have a PhD in Mathematics, and worked in Academia, so I am an outlier. I don't think Knuth's book are a difficult read - for me. But unlike you I don't make the mistake of believing everyone is as proficient as I am. I don't know a single person, among my friends and acquaintances working in SWE, that could read a page of TAOCP.
