I'd argue that once you have a very well defined requirement doc that mostly kicks humans out of the picture, as well as a patient boss who doesn't want anything ASAP or "Tomorrow morning first thing", engineering is not that hard, and is almost...enjoyment.
A well defined doc evolves over time. it gets sharper with real-world scenarios, incidents, and experiments. Before Voyager 1, we didn’t have that kind of experience. You can’t predict everything upfront.
> Theory only takes you so far
I’d argue that you must not be working on interesting problems if you think that “engineering is not that hard”
> ASAP or "Tomorrow morning first thing"
like in "fast pacing environments" with "flat hierarchies" and "agile mindset"? :-D