[gvb]

My summary/option: Technical leaders should be front-running the team so that, when less experienced engineers run into problems, the technical leader knows in what direction to point the team to find the solution to the problem.

Having technical leaders stuck on legacy Sisyphean tasks (a) sucks up the time that should be used front-running the team for solutions to future problems and (b) removes opportunities for less experienced engineers to learn new ideas and skills, hindering their education and development.