I don’t think it’s a SWE thing at all. Just bog standard human behavior.
People like consistency. They hate change. If they get used to a specific tool or way of doing things, I’m pretty sure you’ll find similar behaviors.
The key is time spent with a tool. I would expect if you took away an engineer’s favorite CAD software, even if it costs many thousands of dollars, you’d see a similar reaction. Would they be able to do their job with another tool? Certainly. Will you hear about it? Even more certain.
People like consistency. They hate change. If they get used to a specific tool or way of doing things, I’m pretty sure you’ll find similar behaviors.
The key is time spent with a tool. I would expect if you took away an engineer’s favorite CAD software, even if it costs many thousands of dollars, you’d see a similar reaction. Would they be able to do their job with another tool? Certainly. Will you hear about it? Even more certain.