Yes, the original statement is totally reasonable:
Ultimately, I want a profitable product to be a byproduct of my excellent engineering, not have my engineering be just a means to an end, of getting to a profitable product.
In other words, “I want to work for a company that values engineering excellence.” And the reply is something like, “you don’t understand how business works”? It’s true that an understanding of the concepts in the article will help you recognize a good business so that you don’t go to work for a company started by engineers with no understanding of business themselves, but you don’t want to work for someone that has a knee-jerk reaction to bringing up engineering quality as something important, either.
Ultimately, I want a profitable product to be a byproduct of my excellent engineering, not have my engineering be just a means to an end, of getting to a profitable product.
In other words, “I want to work for a company that values engineering excellence.” And the reply is something like, “you don’t understand how business works”? It’s true that an understanding of the concepts in the article will help you recognize a good business so that you don’t go to work for a company started by engineers with no understanding of business themselves, but you don’t want to work for someone that has a knee-jerk reaction to bringing up engineering quality as something important, either.