It is the conventional wisdom of laymen that if you want a really great engineer you get a scientist. For example, the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster included the great theoretical physicist Dr. Richard Feynman, but no engineers. Challenger O-Ring One should no more call upon a scientist to explain why a machine does not work properly than to call upon an engineer to explain a nuclear phenomenon.
Engineering is neither better nor worse than science, but it is different.
The basic objective of engineering is to design useful things. Some engineers and scientists do both. The training of scientists and engineers are similar but different. Both learn basic science and the associated mathematics. Scientists learn more advanced science so they can further advance science.