> I think what the parent may have been complaining about is essentially myopia in interpreting things - ‘well, this technically checks the box of what they ask for’ while willingly avoiding thinking about the larger context of what is being attempted or trying to understand requirements that don’t make much sense.

I think what your post’s parent was pointing out is that in lots of environments, such myopia is just an engineers job definition, for which they will be punished if they stray. Interpreting end-user needs is someone else's job.