If you actually talk to engineers who have to follow regulation and building code, they will tell you how often the rules are nonsense and don't make technical sense, they have to click checkboxes to say that something is fulfilled that doesn't even make sense in the given context etc.
I certainly agree that many local regulations and building codes are not there for engineering reasons, they're there for political and economic reasons that have nothing to do with good engineering.
But it's also true that any of those engineers who say that a particular regulation doesn't make technical sense, will be able to explain to you in detail why it doesn't make technical sense, based on the kind of theoretical and practical knowledge I described, the kind that is backed by well-tested models with excellent predictive capacity.
