I think I might not have made myself clear enough, sorry. Let me add some context to what I meant:
The problem with software engineering is that understanding [things like indirection] well is as fundamental [to software engineering] as understanding arithmetic [is fundamental to civil engineering].
I presume that this assertion, then, is uncontroversial?
Indirection may be fundamental to programming, but it is a fairly self-contained concept that in my experience can be grokked quickly. The math required for an engineering degree is based on arithmetic, algebra, trig and calculus, all of which are taught over a period of years.
I may still not be understanding you, but my own experience, when I learned programming as part of an EE degree (first language was C with lots of pointer manipulation) was that concepts like indirection are a lot simpler to pick up de novo than Partial Differential Equations, Fourier Transforms and other college-level math concepts are, even with 12 year grade school background.
Asking this may be trite but: do you have evidence to back that assertion up? Why couldn't we say that about other professions?