Software is a bit unique in that the vouching process is really worth nothing at all. A licensed structural engineer, attorney, or doctor has professional liability for acts of negligence and malfeasance. The last time I checked, most commercial software is expected to have large numbers of defects. There are some costly products I can think of that are barely fit for purpose, and yet somehow the bad actors responsible for them aren’t sued out of existence or prohibited by law from practice.
I think if the industry trend is toward paying developers to verify or certify programs are logically sound and fit for purpose, then users will be getting a lot more value for the cost of developers’ time.
Reliability is worth everything. You never ever want to do work with unreliable people. If someone is convincingly lying without any incentive, you have to check every single thing they do and this is even more difficult than doing the work yourself.
I think if the industry trend is toward paying developers to verify or certify programs are logically sound and fit for purpose, then users will be getting a lot more value for the cost of developers’ time.