That has absolutely nothing to with what I wrote. I was not writing about history of 400 or 500 years ago nor about people with unlimited budget and building spanning 150 years from start to finish.
I was talking about what architect as a job means today. There are two branches and the technical one exists, because it is needed and useful.
It has nothing to do with culture bullshit, diminished skills and all that, frankly, crap. And if you want experimental architecture and arts, there are plenty of those too. It is just that this guys friend is not that arts guy.