Or maybe they'd just rather do computer science than software development.
There are lots of branches of technology work that prize understanding over shipping.
There are lots of branches of technology work that prize understanding over shipping.
The entire official story of "lean" is "build, measure, learn", which is fundamentally about developing a process for shipping while deepening an understanding.
The hermeneutic circle (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutic_circle) cited by Dave Herman of Mozilla Research and Brendan Eich (about JavaScript) is a process of iteration that prizes a deepening understanding interleaved with lessons learned from shipping.
I didn't interpret the OP to be saying that she wanted to gain a perfect understanding before shipping, but rather that she preferred a style that focused more than the tech community average on deepening understanding.
And I don't think she needs to go to a different branch of technology to get that. Maybe app development needs more of it.
Steve Jobs famously talked about the interplay between understanding and building: https://wycats.svbtle.com/theres-a-tremendous-amount-of-craf....
I think we could do worse than to think about this topic more.