[ziddoap]

>Employers don't require their employees to be members of a professional order because they think professional orders are nifty

I didn't say they do it for nifty-ness. At risk of repeating myself again: if it is a requirement of my position, I get my employer to pay for it. Why it is a requirement doesn't matter to me.

If you want to pay for and do continuing education things on your own time and dollar, I'm not going to stop you.

>But I feel like one could argue that the informal expectation of software engineers to care about software

I didn't say I don't care. I just have plenty of other things that I care about that take priority when I am not working (spending time with my family, friends, doing other hobbies, etc.).