I don't think we admire good engineering because it has some "aesthetic" merits. It's beautiful because it fits its purpose. Planes are beautiful, but if they

I don't think we admire good engineering because it has some "aesthetic" merits. It's beautiful because it fits its purpose. Planes are beautiful, but if they looked differently, they wouldn't be able to fly. Cheetahs are beautiful, but every feature in their body has been designed by nature to make the fastest animal on earth. I think it's the same with software engineering. We don't think a program is "beautiful" because the author decided to use that particular algorithm or fancy data structure, it's because this algorithm or data structure allows them to solve the problem at hand correctly and within imposed limitations on resources. It fits nicely with the overall purpose.