I think engineers like complexity. We like the ability to control and shape all of our tools.
In my experience, non-engineers, tend to like simplicity.
I have learned that there's a lot more non-engineers, than engineers. Many of them, have a lot of money, that they are willing to spend on things that are simple.
Working with graphic and interaction designers has taught me to suppress my resistance to making things simpler.
No, that's not my experience or understanding at all. Complexity is a byproduct of building something without understanding how all the parts fit together and without having a clear vision for how it will be used. The pyramids were built as monolithic monuments to the glory of a ruler intended to last millennia. They had a clear vision for what the end product should be, how it was going to be monetized and where material and labor was going to sourced before they laid the foundation.
Engineers thrown piecemeal at the edges of a problem will generate complexity. Engineers thrown into a room with a vision for what needs to be built and time to work out an elegant solution will get you to the moon with a pocket calculator.
Eh. That goes for everything.
If an engineer designs something, it tends to be complex, regardless of whether or not the designer has “the big picture,” because they design the whole thing to fit their worldview. Engineers have a complex worldview.
If a UI designer designs it, the chances of it being simple (from a user PoV), is much greater.
Designing a simple UI, in my experience, is often “un-simple,” however. I remember writing a visual cropping algorithm, for a film scanner.
It was a pretty damn hairy library (it ended up being an entire subsystem).
Worked well, though, once I refined and debugged it.
The UI designer might be capable of designing a simple UI but probably has no idea how to design a simple infrastructure, dataflow, logistics, corporate operations infrastructure, finance structure...
You're thinking like a UI designer that's watched engineers without UI design experience try to design a UI. You're referencing a lack of expertise and experience, not some inherent trait in engineering.