This is a good description of the state of hardware engineering but I think the implication is that this will never change is incorrect. Also the main point has

This is a good description of the state of hardware engineering but I think the implication is that this will never change is incorrect. Also the main point has little to do with open-source. By these arguments, even engineering practices for proprietary hardware are prohibitive to rapid development. Before we had compilers, debuggers, code analysis tools, garbage collection, etc. building software was hard too! Some would argue that building software is still hard. Hardware engineering clearly needs more accessible and easier to use tools, open source can actually help this. The best and most-used software development tools are open-source. An open landscape will encourage development innovation as more and more people become hardware developers. With that in mind, I would actually title this article something like "Why hardware engineering needs to be open-source to advance."