In Canada, that's the legal definition of engineering. You may not call yourself an engineer without accreditation and such accreditation will be rescinded if you make severe enough engineering mistakes.
I don't disagree with you, but there's a LOT of people in Canada calling themselves software engineers or network engineers who don't have a degree qualified to wear the iron ring.
That's about being a Professional Engineer, which legally entitles you to certain actions (e.g. sign off on design docs). Anyone can call themselves engineers of any kind as long as they don't pretend to be P.Engs.
I am not sure though that being P.Engs in software means anything in practice, unlike in e.g. structural engineering.