| among the engineers there are a significant number of people who believe that's how things should be

There are close to zero people who tend to think like that among actual engineers. That's why we have reliable transportation and bridges and skyscrapers that work for (soon to be) centuries. On the other hand, we have lots of them among self-professed "engineers" who have changed many monikers over the past couple of decades and will probably call themselves "gods" in a few more years down the line.