The DE being lower status thing is precisely due to the rebranded DBA comment I made. It's no different than how the term "DevOps" was coopted by sys admins rebranding themselves with a hipper title. And we're starting to see the same thing with SRE being used by QA folks seeking a similar rebranding.
As an applicant it's hard to figure out which form of Data Eng, DevOps, SRE the company practices and is seeking. As a company, it's hard to communicate your interpretation of the terms.
IMO at least with DevOps one tell is if they consider it to be a role and not a philosophy, they probably are using it to mean sysadmins.
There's also quite a few new-to-the-industry data engineers who are just starting out (many more than junior DevOps or SRE). It's a decently sized track for people who are graduating with CS degrees and for those who are switching from other fields. And I know quite a few people who started out trying to become data scientists, along the way figured out that they like DE more and stayed there.
As an applicant it's hard to figure out which form of Data Eng, DevOps, SRE the company practices and is seeking. As a company, it's hard to communicate your interpretation of the terms.
IMO at least with DevOps one tell is if they consider it to be a role and not a philosophy, they probably are using it to mean sysadmins.