I get it, I was an engineering tech at my last job. I used to grumble about how the engineers would get the glory; they designed it, but we built the proto, tested it, and did all the scutt work during V&V. As I progressed in my career, I eventually realized that I had the better job; I enjoyed the complexity of my job, being part of the creative process, the satisfaction of creating protos from scratch and testing and retesting until producing something that worked, getting paid overtime for my long hours as opposed to the salaried engineers, and all without the looming spectre of massive school loan debt (all I invested was a six year hitch in the Navy to learn elecronics).
In this instance, I believe I would thoroughly enjoy that role. Plenty of prototypes out there on zero bail to test it out on, over and over, as I am confident that you would submit your initial design with extra wide tolerances that would need to be narrowed, thereby ensuring the V&V portion of the development process would take a considerable amount of time. I am also pretty sure that you would be there to oversee each step in the process, unlike the usual format that embroiled the engineers were I worked; countless status report meetings with the now political head engineer that used to drink beers with you but now dogs you about how long the V&V is taking as you all collectively edit your Gannt chart because the development lab created your your delays with our hour-long plus liquid lunches at the local brew pub.
To those unfamiliar with engineering process, V&V stands for verification and validation.
I can certainly understand your point of view. Many of us came from the shop floor and got our education along the way. Timed served mold-maker, fitter, and machinist.
I even laughed when it was time to shoot the engineers and put it into production.