This topic is of particular interest to me as I personally went through this the opposite route. I started with Wordpress/Joomla but felt that I couldn’t accomplish my project goals with those. So, I began learning how to program for web out of frustration with those tools.

The problem is that we’ve have become accustomed to reusing the same set of tools to accomplish an array of tasks. If this is how you go about engineering solutions to your problems then perhaps a drag-and-drop tool might benefit you. But there’s an underlying problem with this approach to begin with.

A good solution is tailored to its use. However, this does not negate the need or ability to incorporate good standards such as REST, MVC, and modular parts.

I think anyone would appreciate a streamlined development process. But, all streamlining is a skimming of features. Streamlining should be one of the many processes you go through not a methodology you start with. That is akin to saying that we should stop teaching the fundamentals of math since we now have calculators.

Lastly, in regards to what you’ve said about engineers: If you feel that program developers don’t deserve the title of engineer you should consider what the other branches of engineering entail. Engineers make good money because they’re licensed. In my experience a physicist goes through more rigorous education than their mechanical, electrical, material (etc.) engineering counterparts and will usually come out earning less with a bachelors.