In my country (France), being an engineer (ingénieur, in French) is regulated but tied to a particular degree (which must be approved by the Commission des titres d'ingénieur), and as such I am legally a software engineer.

Engineering is not a regulated term everywhere.

Ok, then there is regulated engineering and unregulated engineering. If you are doing engineering and it's not regulated (for many different reasons) it does not make it any less engineering. Animals do engineering, insects go engineering, it is based on science (empirical), whether they know it or not.

We need to stop redefining terms.