But it's all abstractions. The only issue is who gets to decide. The programmer controls the abstractions they're allowed to code, but everything predefined tha

But it's all abstractions. The only issue is who gets to decide. The programmer controls the abstractions they're allowed to code, but everything predefined that they are forced to work with are "specs" that someone else abstracted for them. But even the programmers who worked on the specs are dealing with their own set of "specs" forced upon them by someone else. And these form the abstraction layers. And if you're working on accounting software, then many of the abstractions you're working with are defined by accounting practices and the IRS. Your job becomes to translate them, and the logic, into software that can automate them, etc. Whenever you're forced to deal with something, it's expensive. Whenever you're forced to do something, it's expensive, especially when considering the cost of getting it wrong.