For a decade I've mostly worked on the kind of products that require operating in close proximity to mechanical, electrical and system engineers. It's thoroughly and consistently disabused me of the notion I see in software-centric areas that software is uniquely creative such that it's different than other "engineering" disciplines. They are just as - if not more - creative within their domains.
Software does have lower commercial expectations in the areas of reliability and quality, and that does seep into the practices you see in design and implementation. But I don't think it produces a difference in kind.
You have to question if you are dealing with an unbiased subset of mechanical and electrical engineers. That kind of interdisciplinary collaboration usually occurs in some sort of cutting edge field.
The typical mechanical engineer is calculating HVAC loads for commercial buildings, not working on robotics. In contrast Google is probably only hiring a mechanical engineer for work that’s the tip of the spear.
(In fairness this also goes the other way. The software engineers working on yet another internal corporate CRUD app are largely invisible to the typical physical engineer.)
I have a very diverse background in these regards:on the creative side I was freelance designer and have a MA of Arts, on the engineering side I design electronic circuits, program, work in VFX.
I guess many devs dream of expressing themselves with programming, just like many film makers, painters, artists dream of expressing themselves with their craft. But what many don't realise, is that after a certain degree of mastery, you know that certain topics demand a certain handling. It becomes less about you, it becomes more about that fascinating aspect of reality you are dealing with.
Whether that fascinating aspect is a certain mood you wanna express, a certain story you wanna tell or a certain problem you wanna solve and create a beautiful elegant solution for is not that different to me.
However: people who always make it about themselves instead of looking at the topics they deal with will rarely create things of lasting value, neither in art or design, nor in engineering. If you chose that framework because you thought it was cool, not because the problem you are solving demanded it, you are still learning and not creating the solution the problem deserves.
I have also worked close to electrical and mechanical engineering for a long time. Apparently you have not worked around rapid prototyping of robotics to think this [1].
