I don't think it is quite fair to say that HW Engineers are suckers for that kind of punishment. They don't enjoy it either but their options are pretty limite

I don't think it is quite fair to say that HW Engineers are suckers for that kind of punishment. They don't enjoy it either but their options are pretty limited. The Yosys suite of tools is proof they are trying to fight back but it is an uphill battle as they try to decipher the encrypted bitstreams each vendor uses to hide what goes on between the curtain of their proprietary tools. With few exceptions (some Lattice chips), the various architectures are only semi-reverse engineered at best. The "suckers" can't leave that capability on the table in the meantime. https://github.com/YosysHQ https://github.com/YosysHQ