This isn’t quite the full story. The OP is editorialized clickbait. The engineer wasn’t just “criticizing” NC infrastructure, he was testifying in a lawsuit against it, and the defense complained about it to the NC board of examiners for engineers because he did not have a license. The board then sent him a letter saying they were investigating him for practicing engineering without a license.

“Wayne’s troubles began when he agreed to help his son, Kyle, a North Carolina attorney, with a case about a piping system that allegedly flooded a few local homes. In his deposition, Wayne testified truthfully that he was not (and never had been) a licensed engineer. In fact, like the majority of engineers nationwide, Wayne was not required to get a license since he worked for a company under the state’s “industrial exception,’” according to the Institute of Justice.

Source: https://www.wect.com/2021/06/10/retired-wilmington-engineer-files-federal-lawsuit-against-state-board-claims-first-amendement-violations/ (on the same site, linked in the OP)

So it’s still stupid, but it’s not as stupid as the OP is making it out to be (for those sweet sweet clicks).