Yes - full disclosure, I am a lawyer, so I am biased and perhaps sensitive about this stuff. But I see a lot of this kind of tribalism on HN. Engineers can do no wrong, lawyers and accountants can do no good.
By the way, the main point of the book is “China needs more lawyerism, America needs less of it” if that makes you feel better. A lot of people seem like didn’t read it before discussing it, but a good chunk of it discusses problems in Chinese structure as well.
But it's quite possible that the rule of law, capitalism, freedom, democracy, western institutions, etc. is what allows engineers to build stuff.
Technology advances when it is financed.