Why Don't Software Engineers Get More Respect?

I don't think the average person really understands IT and what's involved. If I'm at a dinner party and I'm asked what I do, and mention what I do, peoples' eyes immediately glass over. They don't want to understand.

The average non-IT end user is a sheep. Full stop. They don't want to wrap their head around how something works -- they want it all the be transparent unicorns and glitter.

I really dislike fellowship with non-IT people anymore because it seems like I cannot have a decent conversation that requires more than a few brain cells. Honestly, and I'm not being mean, but the average person out there that is not in a STEM-related field really does not grok much beyond basic life. Sad really.

I have to explain what I do, unfortunately, to the higher ups far too often. These people, collectively, seem like they don't have the cerebral chemical processes to power a lightning bug's ass.

"...Engineers make plenty of business decisions every day: Deciding the size of a database field, for instance, or a data type. Those types of choices impact the business, admittedly in a micro way..."

Micro? I have seen decisions about database architecture that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of work over time.