Actually you can't blame engineers for a lot of that, that sounds more like a marketing department issue, which as an engineer I can tell you is perpetually a problem.
Almost every company I've seen likes to pour money into R&D, only to turn around and have economists and marketing insist the product be half as expensive as every single properly built prototype was.
Edit: Please note, there is plenty of stupid engineers out there, and plenty more people willing to lie and call themselves one online. But since everyone already knew that anyhow lets just say the FRAM filter obviously is lacking in many huge, gaping ways its been haphazardly designed, but obviously the fanatics who need to feel accepted by pushing their religion on others will always turn a blind eye to reasoning and logic, and vehemently attack those who don't coincide with their unwavering optimism for it.