This is a good case for custom harness/sandbox engineering.
I hope that the people doing real engineering work out there have started thinking about a new term to describe themselves as a result of the irreparable harm the tech industry has done to the word "engineer".
I think you're confused. The verb form of the word never carried the credentialism of the title. In the same way that "doctoring" never carried the connotation of a medical degree.
Of course the original sense of the noun was "a person who devises things" and shares a root with "ingenious" and carried no connotation of legal credential. That "harm" is more or less restorative to the original meaning of the word.
I'm not referring to the verb form, I'm referring to the people who call themselves things like "prompt engineer" or "software engineer" with a straight face, draping themselves in a false legitimacy stolen from professionals for whom the term "engineer" actually implied something of note. It's embarrassing, or it would be if people were still possessed of the capacity for shame.
loading story #49200072
Are civil engineers, electrical engineers, and train engineers rebranding because of the tech industry?
The word and use of "engineering" predated what you describe as "real engineering work".