The ironic thing is that this "cost-center culture" has even affected the mindset of individual software developers and how we think of our own work.
Most developers ONLY look at their work in terms of cost. ALL pros and cons arguments are really about ways to reduce cost. Consider the term "tech debt" -- nothing could be clearer. Yet discussions rarely ever take place among engineers at a company about how to maximize profit or increase revenue. In fact, I would argue there is a heavy cultural bias on most engineering AGAINST optimizing for revenue, as it is seen as something that motivates sales or product people to rush timelines and sabotage sound engineering practices.
The obsession with cost is baked into programmer culture in such a deep and foundational way, I'm skeptical will ever change, even if the accounting of software projects changes. If you perform a search for the word "cost" on the eBook for the Principles of Object-Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz, you will find it dozens of times in various sentences about the urgency and critical importance of reducing costs, but the words "profit," "income," or "revenue" appear not even once. I'm not trying to make a point about POODR in particular, because this bias is only reflective of the culture as a whole.
You can certainly make the argument that it has to be that way, and engineering should be separated from revenue. I find it very interesting that, as a culture, we are only willing to speak about the monetary value of our work in negative terms.