It's interesting how the words can be ambiguous like that. If I think of the distinction in the context of e.g. clothes, there's likely more engineering in fast fashion and more crafting in bespoke clothing. With food, more engineering in the food items you'd find at a gas station and more crafting at a restaurant.

>> “artisanal” coders who value the experience of coding over the final product

I don't see "artisanal" as that. It may be more that they value the details rather than the experience of coding. They value the details of the final product. Details that most people will not care about. The details that are present in bespoke clothing but missing in fast fashion, the details that are present in a good restaurant's food but missing from a gas station food item.

I think this dissonance is because people currently equate the engineering with profit optimization, as were already pretty deep into the capitalism "endgame".

But in the first phase of industrialization, the quality went up - exactly because we suddenly had specific measurements and tolerances.

The markets however did what they do best: optimize for profit. And the public markets preferred cheap over quality... At least in the consumer space. Objectively quality has significantly improved across the board with every decade. Just not in consumer goods, because of their consistent spending habits

So in my mind a craftsman is something akin to an artist. Whereas an engineer provides solutions.