One meaning of “to engineer” is:

to arrange cleverly and often secretly for something to happen, especially something that is to your advantage

or

skilfully arrange for (something) to occur

or

to contrive or plan out, usually with more or less subtle skill and craft

(from various dictionaries)

This is the sense in which terms like “social engineering” and “prompt engineering” are meant, and it’s a perfectly fine and correct use of the word.

Nothing to do with software is real engineering in any case. Engineering outside the software world actually refers to real codified standards (not just "standards" based on vibes or popularity or generic best practices) that are enforced by central professional regulatory bodies. These are fields where your mistakes can land you in prison or debarred from practicing in the field. No such thing exists in software, so until it does then really anyone in this field should give themselves a real critical review over how snotty they want to be with terminology.

In a world where engineering matters less, the people with writing and literature degrees are able to be more productive.

But I agree it’s not engineering. I love engineering, but if could go back to school it’d be for an English degree.

Indeed. “Prompt guessing” is the word, but it doesn't make you look like you know what you're doing.