And it also depends on whether they're given a timeslot for that and/or incentivized for it. Automated tests need times to maintain, especially if they're some changes on flow / specs, tests need to follow.

I scrap all incentivized metrics when working on something urgent (important and soon), which is often the case. If the metrics somehow incentivized, we'll start gaming it.

Now if a dev has part on production support and automated tests are purposed to reduce the workload for support then it has time slots for that, I bet everyone will start doing it.

If a civil engineer is given specific instructions to make an unsafe bridge, that engineer does not obey those instructions. I think adult developers should behave similarly.

The analogy starts to break down. Most software is less mission-critical than the structural integrity of a bridge. Meaning the consequences for failure are probably annoyance rather than risk of death. Not always. I would imagine the software for nuclear reactor or aircraft controls is in a different category, but most software is not bridges.

Okay, but if developers decide that then at what point do you say it's okay to not treat them like adults?