I definitely empathise with the author. The web space is particularly prone to fashion driven development (FDD). Despite that I think he's a bit off the mark. Most consumer facing development isnt and has never been "engineering" outside of safety critical applications. It's more akin to domestic plumbing. You're connecting existing components together and while there's a skill to it, the skill ceiling isn't that high. Programming however (as opposed to development), even where software engineering does take place, is a craft. It's something that you learn by doing and it takes time to learn to do it well. Modern frameworks and software development techniques are often the equivalent to handing a complete amateur the keys to a fully equipped wood working shop, complete with laser cutters, CNC routers and a load of power tools and letting them have at it with only a few YouTube videos for guidance. Sure they'll be able to make things, and larger and more impressive things than if they could only use hand tools, but the resulting creations will be over engineered, or rickety, or just plain badly designed compared to furniture created by someone who's spent a few years apprenticed to a master craftsman. And you know what, that's fine. 99% of web development is still teenagers desperate to be the next Elon Musk hawking Tinder for marmosets to VCs, WordPress sites and e-commerce. It doesn't matter if it's a bit shit and is developed by people who learned their craft on Udemy and by watching 10 ways to turn yourself into a l33t programmer videos. The concerning thing is when that philosophy starts to infect areas where actual safety critical software engineering is done. No one wants a l33t programmer with massive scrum skillz designing the control system for a nuclear reactor...