The knowledge they need is there, but often in another department. Consider an example of a petroleum engineer. Petroleum engineers use sophisticated software packages that help them locate oil reserves based on soil samples deep-drilled from a region. These packages rely on mathematical models of oil flows through rocky formations. The mathematical models are solved by applying linear algebra operations to matrices representing the data collected.
Linear algebra shows up in many other engineering disciplines.
Yet very few courses require students to study mathematical modeling or use linear algebra packages. A student who selected computer science might never encounter one of these packages in a course. He or she will learn a lot of programming, but that's not the same as linear algebra. Yes, I think this criticism is valid. The world of industry changes fast and so does engineering practice.