Coding just often has a fast feedback loop. If you can't do it people are going to notice pretty fast. You can fail as an architect or prod management for a long time before people discover you are not good at it.

One thing that is good to have in all those positions is an understanding of the code base and where it can slowly evolve to and how that positions the code base best in the market. I'd say the best way to build this understanding is still to build parts of the system yourself. Not talk to experts or agents about the code base.

Yup you'd fail fast because you could not at the time bullshit and handwave the computer. When you don't do the implementation work itself your sloppiness is mostly the concern and inconvenience of implementors. And I concur the best way to understand the system is through the code, and the best way to understand the code is to write it.

We aren't going to understand the systems we whackchitect from now on. It's the endless prodding and begging instead, something that makes me infinitely sad.