The design work in fields which are heavily regulated like that is even more copy-and-pasted. Not only will the average angineer be afraid of solving problems themselves, anyone who is willing to do it will be actively discouraged by the processes from doing so, even if the copy-and-paste answers have severe, known flaws. The grass is not greener on the other side here.
(Safety critical work is, in fact, inspected and accredited like you would wish, and I have seen the ugly, ugly, terrifying results inside the sausage factory. It is not a solution for people who don't care or don't have a clue, in fact it empowers them)
Oh for sure there's some bullshit out there. The self-attestations of the DoD alone are laughable. But I have also seen a number of critical systems with no inspection. Water, power, financial, health care, emergency services, etc. The kind of shit that from a National Security perspective we should have some eyes on, but don't.
(Safety critical work is, in fact, inspected and accredited like you would wish, and I have seen the ugly, ugly, terrifying results inside the sausage factory. It is not a solution for people who don't care or don't have a clue, in fact it empowers them)