Ideally, but this is not at all taught or incentivized in (American) schools. We're taught to "hack it" which means getting to a solution without much regard for how we got there.
You're right. I'll rephrase:
Even if engineers were uniquely capable in this regard it still wouldn't equip them to identify solutions, let alone solve problems, in fields where they lack domain expertise.
This is how all people solve problems. Now everyone are not great at all parts, but this really is what anyone does.
Surely the title ”engineer” means something else?