I don't think that's a fair analysis, and we need to recognise that there is a sensible mid-point between cripplingly under-featured and gold plated; neither of these should be acceptable.
From the days when there were large quantities of pointwork etc at every station, which really cannot have cost vast sums to install and maintain, we seem to have gone to the other extreme where one extra crossover costs £10m, requires rewiring the whole power box, and takes five weekend possessions to implement. If you look at overseas systems they don't seem to have got to this position to anything like the same extent.
Are there no sensible, professional, efficient PW/S&T designers left?