> why not use those incredible skills to use in frugal or humanitarian engineering

Because no one is willing to pay them for it and they have bills to pay.

Check out David Malawey's work: https://www.youtube.com/@davidmalawey

He's teaching proper engineering with commodity parts and accessible technologies.

In my fairly extensive experience, non-profit organizations are not just full of and run by grossly incompetent people, but deeply arrogant and/or deluded ones as well. I have NEVER found an organization that has a genuine desire to seek truth, efficacy etc. They often go with whatever their first (inevitably insufficient) idea was, and not only reject all criticism but respond with indignity, etc...

There's no meaningful/competent oversight. It's all just about feels and optics. And thus no real progress has or will be made.

Anyway, yes, I agree that competent and genuine people (who are extremely rare) ought to try to make a meaningful impact in the world. But there's generally more money in something else.

(one rare exception that comes to mind, though i haven't visited them, is The Ocean Cleanup project. They seem to be experimenting and succeeding towards the worthwhile goal of making effective engineering interventions for cleaning up waterways and oceans)

Because i would rather solve the problems close to home, the problems involving those billionaires.

Im not going to put effort into turning those other people in another country into a new cash crop for billionaires.

Who's taking care of me when I'm old and my body and mind are failing? Billionaires aren't gonna, but the money they pay me can be used to trade for goods and services, so hopefully when it's my time, it's less shitty.