If bean counters are useless and can’t value engineering, why do you start your comment with a story about a hedge fund guy’s opinion? They are the ultimate bean counters.
Finance and accounting are totally different professions, especially when it comes to the dispositions of the people at the top.
There are plenty of extremely strategic CFOs that began their careers as “bean counters.” The terms of all this discussion and theorizing are purely in-group out-group confirmation bias nonsense.
More broadly, I agree with you. Pretending everything would be better under a real engineer is a deluded combination of No True Scotsman and in-group signalling. As HN demonstrates, no group is immune to their siren calls.
Not that I’m a huge fan of hedge funds but I believe the OP’s point is very valid.
Engineering orgs are totally capable of giving up on engineering without any pressure from outside functions. You can’t build a clean sheet plane because MIT grads want to live in New York City? Is that serious thinking? No.
That is not to say there aren't some diamonds at second class orgs, but they are not empowered by the org; on the contrary, the org holds them back, leading to either value destruction or an anemic value creation trajectory as a whole.