Regarding the question you refer to, I didn't see it as a question about career, but more along the lines of "what do I need to get a job/task done or accepted". With such questions there is no easy answer. If we could witness what was going on we'd have a better understanding.
I think such questions are on topic because engineering is more than just problems solving, concepts, ideas, research, mathematics, design, economics, business models, manufacture/construction/establishment. It's also about people, personalities, human perception, convincing bosses & clients that you are right, which involves marketing and salesmanship. It's also about how tasks are achieved.
I don't know about university engineering courses these days, but when I was a student, years ago, everyone had to spend a minimum amount of time in industry getting a modicum engineering work experience before they could graduate.
Some gifted engineering types may function well in the rarefied atmosphere of academia, but in the real world clients want a tangle result and sometimes they want it yesterday and they want it to be as inexpensive as possible.
Universities can only teach so much, the rest has to be learned on the job and through experience. That's why questions like "how do I get a task done or accepted" are on topic.