Do you understand what being a professional (in the formal sense) actually is? It means your first responsibility is to the public, not your employer, and you are legally responsible for the work that you do. That goes for doctors, lawyers, and yes, engineers.

If you as a civil engineer design an unsafe structure and it kills people, you can go to prison. If your employer demands you approve an unsafe design, the fact that you have to stamp the plans that get filed with the government gives you the power to resist. That's what being licensed means.

If people making software don't have that level of accountability -- again, to the public, not to their megalomaniacal tech bro boss -- then they ain't engineers.

It only varies by jurisdiction in the sense that some jurisdictions care about protecting the public and some apparently don't.

The other key requirements I hope your licensing has are continuing education requirements and, most importantly, the notion of being a professional and having accountability to the public, not just your employer. Just taking one college class where you learn about Therac-25 isn't enough; a professional software engineer also needs to have the power to refuse unethical demands by their employer (e.g. to build dark patterns or otherwise enshittify the software) and have that judgement be backed up by the state.

Alright but it feels like you didn't really touch on my personal requirements and just appealed to authority.