I will tell you what else combat engineers do that you may not know, they gather intelligence. My father volunteered to go into an enemy occupied town to get engineering drawings of the Albert Canal and Meuse River. The Germans controlled the dams and were using them to flood the land downstream to slow the progress of the allied advance. By getting the engineering drawings from the town, it provided valuable intelligence in accomplishing the mission to cross those obstacles. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Army for his service.
Clearly, combat engineers were on the front lines and in many cases ahead of the infantry and armored divisions. Without the engineers the armored divisions and their supplies would not have been able to advance, since the Germans flooded most of the land and blew the bridges behind them as they retreated.
I am not saying every combat engineer deserves the CIB and Bronze Star, but clearly some do. Maybe the officers sitting at HQ miles behind the line do not but the guys on the front line in active combat for months certainly qualify by any standard.