specializing in physics as a whole is way to broad. but is specializing in front end software development to broad?
Once you have learned the fundementals of computer science and its assosicated fields (networking and systems engineering mainly), the difference between doing back/front end works is not that large.
I had two semesters of databases at university. I wonder why they wasted so much time. I mean, you don't really need university education to understand the SELECT statement, right? /s
The problem with computer science is that it may take a lot of time to understand something thoroughly, but it only takes a while to find a tutorial, copy some example code from web, and build a simple version that only contains a few bugs and will be a nightmare to maintain and scale, but hey, it mostly works, as long as you use it in the predicted way and don't put in too much data and don't type or click too fast.
And because this works most of the time, and can be sold, this became the standard. People only capable of copy-paste development still get jobs. Design patterns, that's just some academic nonsense for nerds, right? Hey, my teenage nephew made a simple application in PHP over the weekend; how much more difficult can your job be, seriously? Java and JavaScript are the same thing, aren't they? Okay, one of them has optional semicolons, but now you are making a mountain out of a molehill, just admit it. What database design? Just make some tables and put the data there; if it's not fast enough, add some indexes. Web page design? Just put the button on the top; if it doesn't fit, put it on the bottom; if it still doesn't fit, put it on the side or maybe in the header, whatever. What's all this talk about technical debt? I am paying you to add new features...
Yes, software developers who don't have deep knowledge in any field, and who do mediocre work, are quite interchangeable. No need to invent specialized job positions for them. If your company develops 10 products, all the wheels will be reinvented 10 times and most of them won't rotate properly, but that's life. The advantage is that replaceable people are cheaper and more obedient.
I mostly agree but the competition in the field will dictate that. Like you stated if it's features you are after and the sold party won't mind these small details then maybe they (developers) are interchangeable. But e.g in science mediocre work will cost a lot if certain minor details are found wrong. That's whole reproducibility crisis in science is about. The reputation of a whole institute / department might be at risk if the mistakes are exposed.
specializing in physics as a whole is way to broad. but is specializing in front end software development to broad?
Once you have learned the fundementals of computer science and its assosicated fields (networking and systems engineering mainly), the difference between doing back/front end works is not that large.