As far as I understand, Bitcoin is programmable, just not Turing complete.
You are right Bitcoin is not turing complete which means some application won't run in Bitcoin Network. I believe this is done to make the network more stable and secure.
But what's the point of Turing completeness if the gas limits everything already? Why not just repeat the statement in code? Or "Goto" and "Label"?
Gas limits the infinite loop as the early reply stated, furthermore the use of Goto and Label can cause infinite loops and other problems that can be exploited by hackers to attack the network.
Are you telling me the EVM's only reason for success is that it was just more palatable to developers and what they believed about how smart contract ought to be?
EVM has a significant impact on the development of blockchain technology and smart contracts, it also enable developers to build complex decentralized application or what we called dapps.
EVM is clearly explained here:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-is-an-ethereum-virtual-machine-evm-and-how-does-it-work