> So if you would hire someone to redo your bathroom or kitchen, you would hire them without an estimate and quote as long as they divide the project into small tasks?

I love these general contractor analogies because it tells me that these people don't understand software engineering.

Here's an answer for you: the vast majority of software engineering is less like repetitive contracting and more like unpredictable lab experimentation.

It is up to management and business to decide if they are skilled and willing to accept the nature of software engineering.