John in NM
I don't think its confusion so much as rejection. I recall hearing an art grad student once disparagingly refer to another as "a good technician". To most engineers that is a compliment.

I don't know what the engineering version of rejecting art is, since I've never discussed it much with any. Perhaps it is simply ignoring it.

Woodworkers and furniture builders are some of the few people I've known who see the two fields as you do - one depending on the other in both cases. Perhaps that is what I like best about woodworkers