I agree with you. There's a lot of engineering, and science going into IT. But I'm a Software Engineer too, and while I'm clever and do clever things, I can assure you that there's no rigor or reason to call it engineering. This version of engineering is at most the re-use of the word, like how the word art is not just covering artistic expressions, but skillfulness too, even though when you apply a skill artfully, you don't create art. Similarly, I do a lot that takes ideas of engineering, but really I'm just writing code and kinda design a smallish system maybe.
Engineering is at all levels, I’ve designed systems that span global infrastructure and systems that run in embedded systems. I still think that design process is a key part of engineering. Figuring out how to put things together is part of design. I agree the more jr engineer you are, the less “engineering” you see.. but you can’t run until you learn to walk.
I talk to my friends who sent projects into space and friends who design deep sea drilling rigs. The engineering process is very similar.
