I last read that story nearly a decade ago, I think. This time around, it feels more real. The engineers follow silly instructions from people with money, and then...

This is not how I read the story... the people you are referring are monks in Tibet much more than "people with money".

The monks were just gig workers.

That was a fun read. I think I let myself get a little too excited for an ending that couldn’t possibly satisfy, but it was still satisfying innit its own way

“Innit its” lol sorry for the weird typo

I read this as a teenager. So good.

A similar kind of story though much longer is Unsong by Scott Alexander. The prolog starts with Apollo 8 crashing into the celestial sphere and divine magic starts leaking back into the world; Angels are real, Kabala based on the names of God allow real magic and they've been copyrighted. Our protagonist is a worker bee that spends all day saying nonsense combinations that could be True Names for his employer to patent and sell. One day right after the end of his shift he stumbles on one completely by accident and it changes everything.

https://unsongbook.com/