Plans and specifications, as well as material selection, manufacturability and yes, even machine code is, and always has been (since inception of various design tools and machinery), part and parcel of a completed project in the engineering community. From a pad of paper to a car to a building.
If you write the code for the CNC, or use a manual mill on an 80% lower, I would agree that meets the letter of the law. To argue that the code in a CNC is not part of a design goes against the basic fundamentals of engineering design.
Without coming to a legal conclusion since I am not a lawyer or a judgeI agree with your assertions foxtrot.