Are not all people worthy of being treated with respect?
Maybe because the life of a QA person was difficult? Long hours, contact labor, no benefits, low pay, repetitive work, limited opportunities for creative output, getting fired easily, getting blamed for buggy releases, putting up with prima Donna devs, working late into the night, being treated like garbage from the rest of the studio, etc, etc.
Like, I had more training and a specific set of in demand skills, but my job paid me will and gave me benefits and creative output.
I'd also find construction work, janitorial work, slaughterhouse work, fruit picking work, etc all much more difficult than being an engineer.
Don't confuse "difficult training" with "difficult job". It was hard to climb our ivory tower, absolutely, but we've got it easy after that.
QA, and to a much greater extend the other jobs you listed, are difficult because they are unpleasant to do. That is, because people are unwilling to do them. (QA still has skill demands that limit the people who are able to do it, just much less so. I dont mean to equate it with the other jobs you listed that are largely just physically demanding and otherwise limited by tolerance for misery).
Both are accurate uses of the word, but are very different. I agree with you that QA is more difficult.im the latter sense.
This is a sincere question but do you apply that standard to your interactions with others?