Proper engineering also takes into account the end users, even the ones that aren't paying for it. If other engineering disciplines were as hell-bent on cutting corners as SWE, these situations would be common-place:
- "cars older than 5 years are not supported on this bridge"
- "Sure, we can perform maintenance on this bridge, but with every round of maintenance work, the maximum speed across the bridge will be lowered by 5mph"
- "No, I'm sorry, you can't call our office from a landline. We only accept support calls from a Sprint mobile device, and the contract must be less than a year old"
- "What do you mean, you need to replace a fuse? You can't do that, they're built-in. Please contact our office to buy a new house".
- "Sure, our new Model T does 5 gallons to the mile, but look at its color! It's not just black, it's Vanta Black (tm)! And look at these rounded bumpers, aren't they a marvel of engineering?"
Engineering without constraints is easy, but it's not engineering.