But to their bosses their output was salt.
I'm sorry but unless you're working in open source for the pure love of the tech/craft, the output of software engineering is PROBLEM SOLVING.
That's why "build vs. buy" exists - sometimes it's better to buy a solution than buy one. That's why a valid solution to a problem sometimes is to convince a customer that their ask is wrong or unreasonable, and something simpler or easier would get them 99% of what they need with 1% of the effort.
That's our job.