Hardware and networks get the easy stuff, it's just moving lots of data around. Software is where all the messy human stuff happens. So naturally it's a reflection of human beings. Ie messy.
I'd say all the software on earth is done cheap. Quality doesn't really matter for most projects. Where it does matter, if there's money it happens.
Sure, the hardware and network are a miracle.
My 2 cents is that there is so much software to be written that most programmers are mediocre at what they do and/or their working environment makes it even more difficult to create efficient software systems.
Similar correlations to Government.