Did they have the STE title or SDET? When this happened it wasnt like there was 100% automation in place so developers, architects, SDETs, had to pick up the slack. I personally got stuck verifying bug fixes for our components (kernel stuff and supporting user mode services) in various languages I don't speak (particularly fun for left to right languages) just to get the bug count down. That team had something like 20 STEs that got the axe post beta 2.