People always look at me weird when I call software dev digital plumbing. Then they come back the next day and say, “actually I was thinking about it and you’re totally right!…”.

It depends on the scale though right? Plumbing a city has different problems than plumbing a bathroom.

Plumbing isn’t meant to be a reduction. You’re still solving problems. But at the end of the day the data must flow.

But the complexity of the network can result in emergent properties that are at a different layer of abstraction than fitting pipes together.

Software engineer can be similar to plumbing, an maybe for most jobs it is. But it can be so many other things as well. Writing a game isn't much like that at all for example.

Depends on what part of the game you’re working on, I imagine. Building a game (or any software product) is probably more like building a house. You need architects and designers and painters and carpenters and masons and electricians and plumbers. If you do frontend stuff you’re more like a mason or carpenter. Backend more like electrician and plumbing. Systems design -> architect. Interaction/UX design -> designer.