This seems like a lot of excuses to justify “it’s just how it is” in the USN. The bottom line is many top notch Navies around the world do this, and it works better than the conglomerate system the USN uses today. The basic SWO engineering training and even qualifications such as EOOW (because everyone knows almost no JO ever really stands EOOW) can still be done. I have seen many a CO that didn’t know much at all about engineering, and even less than many Masters I have sailed with as well.