I think you don't see the full picture here. The developers working for SAP usually don't need any certifications. They are regular computer scientists/physicis

I think you don't see the full picture here. The developers working for SAP usually don't need any certifications. They are regular computer scientists/physicists/mathematicians etc. who write code / design systems. There are of course the certified consultants that work for clients of SAP. I can however understand why they need certifications. It's probably impossible to configure these systems without some kind of special education in them. And as for the quality of SAP devs.. I work for SAP and I have met many very qualified developers at the company. Far more than I anticipated before joining the company. Quite a few have been poached by Google et al but that is another topic.