Often there is more than "black box functionality" to be considered. In commercial cases, and in safety critical applications, most important questions are:
- Can the thing do any harm? (if handled according to spec; if handled outside of spec)
- Is is maintainable?
- Is its design understandable?
- Is it endurable? Under which environmental conditions?
(There is more...)
Of course all those question come with: In which degree? In many cases there are standards and regulations for this! Adhering to those "extra-functional" recommendations is one aspect of "professional work". (E.g. The Titanic was equipped according to such regulations concerning the number of lifeboats!)
The other aspect is "good functional design". This needs an UNDERSTANDING of why things work in the first place. In very few cases this understanding can be implicit ("in the sub conscience mind" so to speak); we call such a person "genius". But generally you have to undergo a more or less hard apprenticeship to get it.
This applies to all areas, cooking e.g.
However some areas are more friendly to mis-design than others. Software will generally do no harm to you if you do not understand how to program (it fact it is the"raison-d'etre" of a forum like this)
Also electronics is not so dangerous as generally thougt. Things often level out because Ohms Law does not exist. (Metal resistors increase their resistance when warming up, thus decreasing the current flowing -> stabilizing feedback.) High voltage does little harm when the current is low, e.t.c.
Talking of cooking, you do smell or taste when things are un-eadible (unless tricked by funny "add-ons")