It's a good thing because it avoids the problem of blocking people from entering for largely arbitrary reasons (i.e., country of birth; exposure to computers in childhood).

I don't think the problem of quality should be addressed by arbitrarily axing people from the field. Some sort of a standardization / accreditation seems like a better approach.

The country of birth and exposure to computers in childhood are not preventing people from becoming software engineers. I'm living proof of that, as are many people all around the world.

And axing is not arbitrary, it's generally done based on experience and know-how. Not everyone can or should become a software engineer.

Because people think bad software is better than no software