The longer I do this the more I realize the part of engineering most of us enjoy is solving a problem in a novel way. Which means if left to their own devices engineers will recreate the entire tech stack every few years instead of using the shit we've already built 20 years ago cause it's too boring.
Resume driven development. It's the same shit: reinvent stuff. Use "cutting edge" tech. Get credit, move on. Who has time to just solve the problem and build something that just works?