> It is indeed a pity that so many younger software engineers really have no idea of how heavily used real-world systems get built. Nor do they understand all the various tradeoffs and corner cases that need to get handled to make products work well in real life.

Isn't that a hallmark of a junior engineer :) ? If you're trying to achieve deeper technical depth (which takes time), it helps to be a part of an organization that rewards said technical depth.