You should absolutely understand every step of that process if you're working on web applications.
"Every step?" Not at all true, in my experience.
What you need is a reasonable sense for the breadth and depth of the topic -- which quickly reveals itself to be far broader and deeper than what most engineers (including many very capable people I know) can hope to "absolutely understand every step of". And the ability to drill down (and go down rabbit holes) when needed. Combined with the experience of actually having gone down more than a few (and having from relatively unscathed, eventually).
In fact, if anything, your observation isn't just overstated - it actually misses the point of what makes some of the most effective people as effective as they are: their ability to manage complexity, and in particular, their ability to (reasonably) "connect the dots" in a complex system despite not "absolutely" knowing, at every level of detail, how every component in that system works.
Mind you, for the right value of "reasonably". It's when knowing when their level of understanding, while imperfect, is still good enough to solve the problem at hand - and when it isn't - is that makes these people so effective.
"Every step?" Not at all true, in my experience.
What you need is a reasonable sense for the breadth and depth of the topic -- which quickly reveals itself to be far broader and deeper than what most engineers (including many very capable people I know) can hope to "absolutely understand every step of". And the ability to drill down (and go down rabbit holes) when needed. Combined with the experience of actually having gone down more than a few (and having from relatively unscathed, eventually).
In fact, if anything, your observation isn't just overstated - it actually misses the point of what makes some of the most effective people as effective as they are: their ability to manage complexity, and in particular, their ability to (reasonably) "connect the dots" in a complex system despite not "absolutely" knowing, at every level of detail, how every component in that system works.
Mind you, for the right value of "reasonably". It's when knowing when their level of understanding, while imperfect, is still good enough to solve the problem at hand - and when it isn't - is that makes these people so effective.