We're much more like artisans than engineers, in my opinion (maybe with the exception of extremely deep-in-the-stack things like compiler engineering).

The problem seems to be that because there's no "right way", only wrong ways, discussions end up being circular. I'm not a civil engineer, but I imagine there is a "best way" to build a bridge in any landscape, where any decisions and tradeoffs have well defined parameters, gained through trial and error and regulation over literally thousands of years of building bridges.

Us "Software Artisans" spend almost as much time arguing as lawyers do because, like law, it's all made up. Information, and human-to-human communication via CPU instructions abstracted to the point of absurdity.

I also get the vibe that greybeards like Uncle Bob and Martin Fowler understand this very intuitively.