People try to move CS both towards and away from engineering: We want the dependability engineering seems to provide in, say, Civil Engineering, but we don't want to acknowledge that engineering is about trade-offs, which are compromises, and that the nature of those trade-offs changes as the world surrounding a specific tool or program changes.

Maybe they think there is a One True Way. Maybe they think every building needs to be reinforced concrete and structural steel, now and forever, in every possible context.