programmers have some kind of quasi-religious penance complex around the idea of professional engineering licensure and it's exhausting

most of the devices you encounter at the daily basis were designed by people holding zero licenses. the people who've made your phone, your laptop, your charger, your fridge, your dishwasher, your drill, your lightbulbs, (insert device here) are engineers. or at least, nobody is going around claiming that electrical/electronical engineering is "not real engineering". yet they have no iron ring, are not personally liable for faults, and are not required by the state to hold any qualifications whatsoever (the devices are certified—usually self-certified at that—the people who made them are not)

the situation that civil engineers and boilermakers have is an exception, not the rule. if you get it into your head that you are a failure for not holding up to a standard that nobody in comparable situations in other fields will even think of applying, you don't need a license, you need therapy