>most countries in the world do not have regulations or licensing requirements for most engineering disciplines

Well, then in those countries those disciplines aren't treated as enginering.

Any country worth its name and with a rule of law, would have regulations and licensing requirements for electricians, civic engineers, structural engineers, aviation engineers, chemical engineers, etc.

I mean, they had building rules at the time of Babylon:

https://talk.build/construct-iq/ancient-babylon-and-the-firs...

And even in medieval times, working in certain fields that we'd call engineering today, was legally restricted to specific guilds.