I actually disagree that the only reason why a business would need engineering like this is to scale.
That is a reason, and if that's the reason, these businesses will not need it.
However, there are plenty of other reasons. Automation and engineering of various business processes exposes issues throughout your structure, can safe hundreds of man-hours, and can produce better product than people can.
Much of my business is automating the generation of various reports. It may only save the business 10-20 hours a month, but you know these reports are solid (if the data is input correctly).
It takes the focus OFF the reporting and puts it ONTO the data: where it should be.
That's worth the 10-20k per app 10 times over.
And this also separates what people call "startups" from small companies. All startups start out as small companies, but they don't comprise all small companies. They look and follow the value that will require them to grow.
I think, indeed, that a company must value engineering if they want to grow really big. If they don't, then engineering/tech is not made a priority.
Also I'm going to assume English isn't your first language. If you are to English speakers you really need to work on your language skills
I'm also going to be brutally honest if you have 12 plus years experience and you don't understand the nature of business then perhaps you should have someone help you on that end because understanding why people don't need great engineering