Also, even among software engineers, the need for more than 16 GB RAM is presumably rare.
Would you care to mention what do you need it for?
This is a standard setup that I've seen hundreds and hundreds of developers use on large enterprise / consulting and systems implementation projects.
It's still very common for many many developers to live in world that doesn't solely consist of a text editor with JS.
Also, even among software engineers, the need for more than 16 GB RAM is presumably rare.
Would you care to mention what do you need it for?