Apparently, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (the board that regulates other engineering fields in the USA, such as civil engineering) used to offer a Professional Engineer (PE) exam for software engineering, but it was dropped in 2019 due to lack of participation and bad prospects for increased participation.

https://ncees.org/ncees-discontinuing-pe-software-engineerin...

I think that is an argument for the term rather than against. A SWE SHOULD be held responsible for the things they make and the impacts it causes. Additionally, so should PMs and CEOs but heyyyy. I guess the big issue is that it is easy to place blame in the case of a bridge failing...but much harder when a system products mass suicides.

I think it’s worth separating the question of “do software engineers actually carry professional liability or have their designs independently reviewed” from the question of “is software development work sufficiently consequential and verifiable to warrant professional liability and certification requirements?"

To me, the answer to the first is obviously no and the second is obviously yes.

Who made you the Grand High Arbiter of language use?