There are pretty major exceptions to what require engineering licenses, and it is pretty unclear where software should fall in.
You can sign a liability waiver and do all sorts of dangerous things.
>most “real” engineering field have had licensing requirements for a century, without any real complaints against that process).
Most newer engineering fields are trending away from licensing, not towards it. For example, medical device and drug engineering doesn't use it at all.
is a special case exception, where rather than requiring licensing for the engineers building the product, we put detailled restrictions and regulations on what needs to be done (extensive testing, detailled evidence, monitoring programs, etc) before the product can be sold or marketed.
That is hardly an example of a field where risk-taking is encouraged and unlicensed persons are able to unleash their half-developed ideas on the public.
Do you have any other examples of fields which are "trending away" from licensing?
You can sign a liability waiver and do all sorts of dangerous things.
>most “real” engineering field have had licensing requirements for a century, without any real complaints against that process).
Most newer engineering fields are trending away from licensing, not towards it. For example, medical device and drug engineering doesn't use it at all.