You can do that but you'll spend a lot of money breaking things. If you're in a non-safety critical field then that is a possibility. But, you really need good engineers, or to make them through these mistakes, to figure out what is really going wrong.

Software failures don't usually visibly lose money, make a mess, or kill people. (Sometimes they do, see RISKS). So it's possible to have the usual sort of software project failure where something is 200% over budget and time, without anyone really waking up. But if a pressure vessel goes bang people tend to notice.

It is crazy complicated. In my experience, most companies have a few highly competent engineers who get funneled the work of lower level engineers with a review process. These engineers will also set up some domain-specific guardrails/guidelines that can help keep the lower level engineers from causing catastrophic issues.

Combine that with a healthy safety factor to cover the unknowable (internal material structure, etc) and you're generally safe.