[cyrilgrislain]

Everything is a matter of balance and reasonability. Yes, PM role has existed for decades actually, well beyond Tech (also often called Project Management). What happened recently is: the Tech Giants organization have become so ... well, Giants, that they had to over multiply this role, as a way to get cross-functional work done, priorities upheld, etc. Also a matter of choosing to over-specialize engineers (see how hard it is to find full-stacks now), designers, etc. And a matter of how far from the users have pretty much everybody become. I knew PMs in these Giants for literally the 'edit' button. Like everything else, the pendulum has swayed to the opposite extreme / exuberance.

Most startups will need PMs, after reaching a certain size and complexity. What I see is that too many startups, well before reaching that stage, have over multiplied PMs.

Finally, when your company is on a clear path to run out of cash, this discussion and trade-off becomes a matter of survival. Not of org concepts.