[jimjimjim]

And the Burj Khalifa doesn't need an architect?

Sometimes the system doesn't need it sometimes it does. Not all software systems are the same.

I personally think the architect role is to look at the big picture first rather than trying to dictate the minutiae.

[basdp]

The point is that an architect who doesn't 'code' (read: doesn't know how the practical implementation is done) doesn't know what he is designing. It's too abstract.

A structural architect is called the same, but is not really comparable. Apples and oranges. At the least because the Burj Khalifa is still built under the same physics model as they used 100 years ago.