[cupofjoakim]

I'm not the one you responded to, but I definitely feel like it's not necessarily a "good" thing or a "bad" thing. Having a senior be more involved in writing some functionality should mean more maintainable code with more complex issues factored in to the solutions, which should mean better predictability when it comes to planning new work.

At the same time, having seniors involved in more abstract discussions before implementation should also lead to better end results. That being said, having my engineers be involved in "ass-kissing" as you put it is honestly not a good use of their time. Leave office politics to engineering managers and project managers, in my opinion.