Nobody ever said everyone is a good engineer, nor would they imply that every engineer is suitable to every job. The more solid an engineer’s command of the fundamentals, the more opportunities will open to them. Those who didn’t “get it” were automatically excluded from the most high horsepower jobs by GPA alone. Anyone who squeaked by that step certainly didn’t do well in their tech interviews. To imply that because a few can practice with substandard understanding equates to everyone being able to seems pretty silly.
@boneh3ad is the resident authority on Navier-Stokes. I’m looking forward to the reply. 