[BowBun]

That's just not reality. Many EMs are not necessarily proficient or even knowledgeable in the stack. It depends on the company.

EM doesn't mean the same thing everywhere. Last week I applied to an EM role that was 100% people management where my tech experience did not matter much. I also applied to one that was still a majority technical/architecture design, that some would consider a 'tech lead' or something like that.

Being offended by it is kind of funny. You'll probably have a boss like that eventually.

[benreesman]

I’ve known lots of people who aren’t technical to the level of an engineer but still crazy smart and high-value in teams. They’re usually called project managers.

Calling them engineering managers and acting like it’s good to have EMs who can’t code is an anti-pattern. Just call them PMs and let them do all the high value stuff they do.