I'm sure most engineers actually know what they are doing. A lot of these audiophile oriented companies obviously do not.
There seem to be a whole lot of sweeping generalizations in this thread about who knows what they are doing. It's actually pretty unfair to all sorts of engineers.
Look, most know exactly what they are doing. That's not the issue at all. There is an errant coupling here with knowledge and result. They are related, but the result is influenced by other factors like economic goals, marketability, artistic demands, etc.
The example in the quote above about audiophile oriented companies...yes, they do know what they are doing. If they didn't, their companies wouldn't survive in the marketplace. What they are doing is producing equipment with high build quality, exotic industrial and electronic design, that fulfills the desire of a small segment of the market for upper echelon targeted gear. The fact that you can get excellent sound from a fraction of that investment isn't the point at all.
A low priced economy car will go the top posted speed limit, and so will a Bugatti Veyron. Both have four wheels and an engine, and one costs a fortune, one does not. If your only goal is to hit the posted limit, both fill the bill. Do you get your money's worth in the Veyron? Most car owners would say not in the least, but the Veyron owner thinks differently. Bugatti isn't ripping people off, they're filling a market niche.
Music production is creating marketable art. We all here might think loud mastering is a terrible idea, I know I do, but those paying the bills for that record have made their artistic decision. The recording and mastering engineers probably are just doing their bidding, though arguable many today are comparatively under-schooled for their jobs. The only thing that speaks here is money. If bad mastering is to stop, those records have to sell poorly.
You have to vote with your wallet, and music purchasing is totally self serving. Any chance of that happening?
But engineers...perhaps we ought to let them off the hook, at least a little.
I, and all other engineers, thank you.