[rocqua]

Isn't that a narrow interpretation of engineering? Especially because in software engineering you often have micro decisions that are unspecified, where user preference does matter.

Good engineering requires making the correct decisions in those cases. It requires knowing the 'actual' problem so you are not building a solution for the wrong thing. That means requirements are a part of engineering. Maybe not the full responsibility of gathering requirements, but understanding requirements, clarifying requirements, and feeding back what requirements are feasible or conflicting seem very much a part of engineering.