That's overly charitable. It can be a meaningful positive indicator, but only the same way that any other work experience can be. Compare that with the prolifer

That's overly charitable. It can be a meaningful positive indicator, but only the same way that any other work experience can be. Compare that with the proliferation of requirements for experience in specific languages rather than for specific (but more general) engineering ability, and I think my cynical take isn't overly cynical at all.