As so often, I wonder to what degree this discussion is related to the abstraction level of the concept "software".
In my field of work (research in physics and chemistry), there is a long tradition of reflection on our work practices. At the extreme, a few physicists end up writing books about this reflection (such as
this one, which is very good but a bit old by now). Away from this extreme, discussions about our methodology happen all the time, be it at lunch or at conferences. And since nowadays we all use computers, the use of software has become part of this discussion. But we don't discuss software in the abstract, we discuss the creation, maintenance, and use specifically of the software we use.