Without getting into the finer points, my understanding is this: My company needs to make metal squares. There is a defined process for it. I just need a welder to weld all four corners. No R&D here.

I need a website with some features. Asking a sample of professional software developers how to build it, you get a variety of answers.

If anything, that the basics of software development still requires R&D is an indictment of our fields lack of professionalism.