The correct analogy would be a software engineer who crafts hacks for autonomous cars that tracks drivers to their locations, then sells them to oppressive regimes that go murder them. Yes, those engineers are scum of the earth.
not necessarily an analogy.
The context is not the same for the car engineers compared to engineer knowingly working on something with the explicit purpose to harm people
Right, and the context of the software is to catch terrorists and cybercriminals, and it was misused, as all tech can be. "The explicit purpose to harm people" is not an accurate description of the softwares primary purpose.
The terms "terrorists" and "cybercriminals" are basically euphemisms for political enemies.
Exactly -- and there's no veneer of legitimacy. NSO has been caught red-handed multiple times selling to atrocious governments. Every single person connected to that company is okay helping despots murder political rivals and dissidents. Just awful.