>Seniors'/leads' skills diverge from engineering over time.
That's exactly the kind of "senior" person we _don't_ want.
That's exactly the kind of "senior" person we _don't_ want.
Where my opinion differs from yours manifests itself in industry in the practice of separating "technical leadership" from "people leadership." Your architects (and leads) should be people managers. They should have authority in how their subordinates' time is spent. They should be able to resolve disagreements, both technical and interpersonal, among engineers. A "technical leader" designing large systems/platforms to be built by a team that's led by a "people manager" is pointless. I mean, who wants to design something without the authority to execute that design? That's a toothless fluff position.