It is why I ultimately stopped taking on much graphics design work and did more film sound mixing jobs — there is so much less people who think they have the experience to tell you precisely what they want and much more we trust you and do your thing.

I am slowly starting to get the idea behind medival guilds..

But when you're writing business software to solve business problems, many more people have a "right" to an opinion. Usually the business people know a lot more about the problem domain than the programmer. They are also the ones who will use the solution.

I've been thinking that this is one of the key differences between software and bridges. When you design a bridge, very few people have a "right" to an opinion on the bolt sizing. But when you design an order entry system, the business users (and users of the downstream data) have a valid right to an opinion.

Agreed, if it is their profession they know it better. The thing I was initially refering to is stuff like people who do a horrible layout in word and ask to to literally do the same thing without having any qualification on the matter. Or people who want you to put a whole page of text nobody will ever be able to read onto a roadside sign.

This feels like if one would ask a electrician to use wires without insulation because they like them better — you can totally have your taste, but some stuff is just plain stupid and won't work as intended.

Graphics e.g. is about communicating certain things, and a graphic designers job is to be aware of what this communication does and how effective it does it. And so just like with a bridge (but arguably less dangerous) there can be design that does the job and design that does the polar oposite of what your customer intended.