This is a popular argument, but I'd argue isn't really true. Looking at electrical engineering, there is no standard license and no standard of performance. Like programming, it's just too broad across different areas with vastly different requirements. The equivalent of very sloppy web development might be a blinky (non-kids) toy, that fails after a few uses with no particular requirements (other than "make it as cheap as possible"). Or look at how often smartphones and laptops fail electrically (or compound failures) for really obvious reasons, that just weren't important enough to fix.
To address the particular point being made here, lots of things in EE are experience driven, for example which decoupling capacitors to use or to not use 90 degree angels on pcbs. I think many aspects of typical engineering are way more driven by experience and vague rules of thumb than we expect looking in from the outside.
The reason why this is more obvious in software development may be because it's pretty hard to have good measurements and understanding failures is pretty hard and working around them is pretty easy.
Very few countries in the world have "licensure" for engineers. It's not a protected term of any sort in the US nor in most of Europe. Canada is one of the few places that's strict about it. Occupational licensing is a form of job market restriction that's generally frowned upon.
In the three European countries I've lived in (2 in EU + UK), licensed engineers must sign off on new building construction plans, and take responsibility for the suitability of the design.
To address the particular point being made here, lots of things in EE are experience driven, for example which decoupling capacitors to use or to not use 90 degree angels on pcbs. I think many aspects of typical engineering are way more driven by experience and vague rules of thumb than we expect looking in from the outside.
The reason why this is more obvious in software development may be because it's pretty hard to have good measurements and understanding failures is pretty hard and working around them is pretty easy.