IT companies should be forced to publicly credit developers

If you want that, write that in to your employment contract. No government entity forces credits to be on a movie. They are there because they're part of the contract.

I've seen games do this, they list the developers, artists, designers, etc... As part of the game credits and not just adventure. Make it part of your employment negotiating if it's an important factor.

Usually there's 2 reasons to do it. First you're a well known name and having your name there will increase profits. This allows you to demand higher pay for your name and better placement. Second you're a nobody but you want to be somebody so attaching your name allows you to build up industry credit.

Read the story about Hard Dean Anders for a funny contract about credits.

Meh. You don't get the list of every worker who was involved in the supply chain that ensured you got the laptop/tablet/phone/other device on which you are reading this. So, why is software or a developer special?

The developers agreed to work for a fee. Assuming the fee was paid, the worker no longer has any legal claim to the work.

Suggesting otherwise upends centuries of legal regulation and precedent.

This would give engineers an incentive to work on customer-facing works of software, and avoid working on internal tools.

You have writers and ghostwriters in the book trade.