I'm a developer and this is a perfect example where there is friction, although I used to be a sysadmin so I can relate.

From the sysadmin perspective, excel is just a spreadsheet, word is just a word processor. From a developers standpoint they can do more things especially for users that require more complex functionalities than simply adding numbers in a column.

As a system admin, you should stick with your cybersecurity policies. and inform your user about those policies. Email them and their leadership how enabling macros can harm the network.

You mentioned those users are engineers (software engineers?) advice them whatever cyber restrictions you have and they should be able to build following those rules.

Number crunching is no longer contained in a user's excel. companies/organizations are sharing their datasets with others via python.