I would argue that it is: it's explicitly a language designed "in the service of software engineering," which is something we're still figuring out how to do. I

I would argue that it is: it's explicitly a language designed "in the service of software engineering," which is something we're still figuring out how to do. It has implemented novel features that serve this end, and left out features that don't. PL design doesn't have to just be about dependent types and borrow checkers, after all.