Real estate has licensing requirements, a national association you kinda need to participate in (MLS) and tons of regulatory requirements. I can't just wake up tomorrow and sell real estate.
The real estate exam is way easier than any IT interview. The MLS is a minor fee for access to the listing service. Tech has tons of regulatory requirements, some segments more than others. Most of the requirements for real estate are in the standard template already. Anything more difficult, and an agent will refer you to see a real estate attorney (much higher barrier to entry).
An easy way to look at this is how many real estate agents could be devs vs how many devs could be agents...
But those are all hurdles you must jump even if the skill required to do so is low. My dog groomer can fiddle with writing Excel formulas and then decide that tomorrow she wants to apply for an entry level software role, write a convincing resume and bullshit the right mix of interviewers well enough and literally nothing would stop her from making it through the application process or beginning an entry level job and turning that into a career if she was successful in the role. There is no standard or required process or governing body or common association or union or group to say who has what it takes to be a dev.
Tech can also have tons of regulatory requirements for the product or business but almost none exist for the employees themselves in the majority of jobs. You can hire a whole team of convicted felons that have never written a line of code into your software department, hand out the associate software engineer title to them and still pass most compliance, regulatory and audit requirements. It would probably be a dumb decision but nothing will stop me from calling them software developers and paying them as such and these roles are common (even if they don't pay entry level FAANG wages, they certainly pay living wages).
That doesn't make writing software easy, and doing nothing to set yourself up for success is going to lead to failure, stalling and washing out most of the time, but it's effectively a walk-on playing field of meritocracy in most cases.
Meritocracies don't exist, only the illusion for those that benefit.
Yes, it seems you're using the lowest theoretical barriers. That's fine. I'm talking about the common practical barriers. Of course our conclusions will differs.
