Agreed, just as encapsulation/abstraction is an important and indispensible concept in software engineering, it is also equally if not more critical in hardware

Agreed, just as encapsulation/abstraction is an important and indispensible concept in software engineering, it is also equally if not more critical in hardware applications. For most electronics, there is usually an IC that can solve a problem better than you can develop, often cheaper. 25 discrete components can be encapsulated by a single IC sometimes (with a couple of bypass caps).