Those workmen have nothing to do with “the compiler.” To continue your peculiar analogy...
Construction workers take the complete design for a structure and build it, in the same way that the compiler takes the complete design for a system and builds it.
If natural-language specifications were sufficient for design, we'd feed them to compilers. (We'd also call that source code.)
When people spend $30,000 or so on an addition to their houses, they take for granted this sort of discipline.
I don't believe that. I've worked in construction and two of my friends work in industrial construction. Static, up-front design with no changes allowed after the implementation stage has begun doesn't work there, either... and physical construction is less malleable than source code.
You don't think of your salary as an expense.
If you asked me what I think instead of telling me what I think, you might realize that what you think I think and what I actually think are two very different things.