The problem here isn't that programmers aren't like other engineers, it's that a software "design" is closer to what other engineers would call a specification.

The problem here isn't that programmers aren't like other engineers, it's that a software "design" is closer to what other engineers would call a specification. A better comparison to the finished non-software design is a finished piece of code, because that's the point where both pieces can be turned over to some non-engineer (either a compiler or a factory, say) to be made.