Sometimes a bit too far out of their way, in my opinion. I get impatient with artists who take an intuitive approach when a rational solution would do as well and give results more quickly. I have other attitudes that come directly from four years in engineering and natural sciences and remain unadulterated. To be specific, I am intolerant of work that passes itself off as broadly metaphorical, or that presumes to mythologize. And I usually dismiss work that is based on a shallow understanding of materials or subjects.
Few artists object so strenuously to anything anyone else is doing.
But I myself cannot see creating without a purpose. Being an engineer in art school was a pretty uncomplicated experience compared with what I went through as an immigrant in junior high. The most amazing part of it was that I had to learn a new language from scratch. Not when they're 12 they don't. Even so, I managed to do it without a single idea of how, which has bothered me for the rest of my life.