> Sorry to say, the software engineer knows next to nothing about "the right way" to design language features that people want to use or enjoy using.

Sorry to say that many PL researchers live in their ivory tower and know next to nothing about things that people care about. One could say that it's not their job, their job is to write papers and get tenure. The number of FP enthusiasts versus the number of large, useful systems written in those languages is all the proof you need.

My statement is a vast generalization and is equally incorrect as the original one.