I was a TL on a team and one of my team members was an average contributor at best. However, he had passion and an infectious positive attitude. He made the team better through terrible puns and corny jokes.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen employees incapable of their job try their best to get by with friendliness and good attitudes alone. I'm happy to see those employees go. Having a positive morale impact on the team isn't sufficient on it's own. But I definitely agree that having a few people on the team that can elevate morale while also contributing technically is worth more than many realize.

People talk about how some people can make a house a home. Some people have a way of making a group of coworkers a team.

Years ago I worked for a company with 2 hardware techs. One customer specifically asked to for the "likeable dumb-ass" to help them even though they knew the solution to their problem might take longer, the smarter tech was a loud know-it-all ass hole and no one liked working with him.

Does this mean you would pay a premium and possibly promote a software developer that doesn't contribute to the product by writing code, but remembers people's birthdays and plans team lunches?