The percentages are different for different types of SWEs, not all SWEs spend 80% of their time on XFN comms. I agree with your larger point that a non-trivial amount of a SWE's time is spent on XFN comms and team alignment. My argument is that if an individual contributor is not spending a majority of their time on problem solving and implementation (including maintenance of legacy code), they are not maximizing their potential. If they are spending 80% of their time on non-coding activity they are better suited for an Manager role (Engineering or Product). At the end of the day, coding is not hard only if you are a good coder to begin with. If you are a good EM/PM then people issues will not be hard (which coders often complain about).