While I agree that in terms of skill-set marketing is probably easier to pick up than programming (I make a living as a marketer and programming is a hobby), there are organizational factors in a marketing department (large ones anyway) that don't exist in an engineering dept. Namely, a multitude of stakeholders who all need or want a say in how the product is marketed. This is compounded by the fact that marketing effectiveness can be harder to measure - MUCH harder if you don't control the sales channel - and so a lot of subjectivity comes into play.
Where I work, on a consumer electronics product, there are up to a dozen different departments and no less than 27 people who weigh in on what I do. Compared to programming, where the ultimate arbiter could simply be "Does it work?" or "Do the tests pass?" marketing is a tangle of opinion and politics.
Where I work, on a consumer electronics product, there are up to a dozen different departments and no less than 27 people who weigh in on what I do. Compared to programming, where the ultimate arbiter could simply be "Does it work?" or "Do the tests pass?" marketing is a tangle of opinion and politics.