In my decades of work as a custom software developer, I’ve concluded that engineering is a good idea.
Engineering is what happens when requirements are distilled into the simplest, most elegant, fast and beautiful machine that enables long-lasting performance. If you just manage to get something to work through repeated fiddling, it probably shouldn’t be called “engineering”. Engineering requires a plan and process, projecting into the future, knowing the steps in advance, and reliably achieving the results.