It was offering perspective, not a blanket statement about the entire set

That isn't ageism.

Simply being a perspective doesn't shield it from being biased.

I don't see the difference with the exact opposite of the statement (ie. that some engineers with more work experience are in fact better than others with less work experience), aside from the potential novelty. How would you prove that statement, so that someone else could prove the opposite. Are you saying that in outliers shouldn't be considered at all, when they are in fact a subset of a population? If so then you missed the point that someone above was talking about outliers and that was the only observation made.

Alternatively, is your stance that there is no difference to claim something is ageism if it is directed at an older population or a younger population? that noticing that older experienced engineers would also fit the criteria for ageism against a younger population making this whole conversation moot?