[joegahona]

Both can be bad. I will say that the best PM I ever worked with had zero technical skills beyond HTML and CSS. She was a master of clarity and communication, and she knew how to give developers what they needed to focus. At some point, technical ignorance is a liability, of course -- but I've worked with many "technical PMs" who are too tempted to "get their hands dirty" and cause more harm than good. If a non-technical PM knows what they don't know, that can be a benefit not a curse.

The other thing, related to the OP -- a good program (project) manager is worth their weight in gold, and I'm not sure a bad PM can just fall into that role instead. Good PMs help define the "what" -- what's getting build, for whom, what problems it solves, etc. Program managers do the "when" and socialize schedules, red/yellow/green charts, etc.