[adcoelho]

From my experience those slow complicated things are often avoided by developers even if it would allow them to delve further in some obscure interesting programming. The programmer's performance is also measured by their ability to achieve the goals within the defined deadlines and accepting a task just because it's interesting even if it means a big delay is not very common. At least in my working environment which is very deadline driven(as I assume most are).

But I am not dismissing your argument on the delay imposed by the extra layer between the project manager and the developer, specially if they have no programming experience.