It is taboo because most software projects tend to be short-lived, led by non-engineers, burnout common and hires seeing as resources (as opposed to individuals

It is taboo because most software projects tend to be short-lived, led by non-engineers, burnout common and hires seeing as resources (as opposed to individuals). For a manager, running a project is about combining resources and getting a product in the end. So they get X developers with N years experience in `foo` and `baz`, allocate M months of salary and collect the product in the end. If you "don't know, but can learn", you don't even get hired, they cannot justify paying you a salary to learn. I'm sure this is different in certain circles (SV, other startup hubs), where you have companies led by engineers or with an engineering mindset, but that's how the song goes for probably 90% of the world's IT industry.