Perhaps I am searching too closely for parallels here, but what would be the analogue of this from a software engineering perspective?

Maybe writing something like an HTTP server in assembly, or something? I remember this (https://github.com/nemasu/asmttpd) popping up on HN some time ago. Writing your own kernel, or compiler? Building your own 8-bit microcomputer, and then running something on it? (A project like that was part of a course I took at college, and it did a decent job at demystifying many common concepts about computing).