An auto mechanic is not a professional?

The skill required to be an auto mechanics is hugely underrated by people that doesn't know how to work with cars. They are one of the few craftsmen jobs still left.

The issue isn't whether auto mechanic satisfies some platonic ideal of a professional, the issue is how one is treated by society or by their employers. I know little of the experience of auto mechanics, but I don't think its a stretch to say that society treats them as interchangeable cogs moreso than, say, doctors or lawyers.

ironically your very view as stated here is simply contributing to how "society treats" them, no?

Sure, you can see it that way. Or you can see it as attempting to make a different point casually without having to avoid everyone's personal landmines and bugaboos.

what is exactly your point? your original post said: "Is it bad to not be seen as a professional and instead as an interchangeable cog? Yes."

now you're talking about "society," but you were the one who compared them to cogs to begin with, lol.

My comment was in response to you apparently not understanding the distinction being drawn by the OP between software development as a relatively high status profession and the relatively low status auto mechanic career. The OP was alluding to the waning status of being a software dev since the 2000-2010 heyday. Injecting your opinion regarding my take on the status of the auto mechanic profession was entirely unwarranted.

I understand the comment - my point was that I don't consider being an auto mechanic to be a low status, or shameful profession to begin with - hence my original reply to begin with. I believe it is you who did not understand the point of my original comment. Oh well.

Oh, so you were in fact feigning ignorance as some kind of bad Socratic method? I figured as much, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's also a mistake to assume a casual example to make an entirely unrelated point is representative of someones views.