[throwaway291437]

I think you are reading too much into what he wrote.

They wouldn't send a fresh MBA to those meetings either. There are plenty of low stakes meetings that they can join to get practice. The article seems more concerned about the practice of "hiding" engineers behind 2-3 layers.

I have a theory that the reason why we see so much resume-driven development is that engineers are only given a small slice of the business that they have control of. Of course they will fill it with over engineered solutions and the latest trends. That's the small world that they live in.

I think developers with close contact with customers and business tends to create more pragmatic solutions, because they have much more room to maneuver and can be motivated by seeing the impact and not necessarily trying to find the next piece of hot tech