The problem is that there are two kinds of "software engineering." There's the practice of software engineering, which is the (hopefully) disciplined process of designing and implementing software. We're not sure how to best do it yet, but we all agree that it's important to get right because it's being done every day. Then there's software engineering research, which tries to evaluate ways in which people build software - but it's goal is not itself to build software. I admit I have been unimpressed by some software engineering research, but at the same time, I have no problem saying that the practice of software engineering is extremely important.