The main problem is that you get promoted for creating social solutions to technical problems. If you solve a problem by writing a great solution in code people will pat you on the back at best, if you do it by creating a plan, hiring people and delegating tasks you become a manager.
"Managers are a force multiplier", well so are developers. A good developer can write programs that runs on thousands or even millions of machines delivering great value, thus there is no limit to how much value a developer can deliver. However since managers gets promoted by implementing social solutions they will always try to go that route. Of course you can do it wrong the other way and be too technical, but I doubt it happens often since managers holds so much more power than developers. Google and Facebook have about the right amount of technical focus, most companies are way less technical than that and suffers from it.
"Managers are a force multiplier", well so are developers. A good developer can write programs that runs on thousands or even millions of machines delivering great value, thus there is no limit to how much value a developer can deliver. However since managers gets promoted by implementing social solutions they will always try to go that route. Of course you can do it wrong the other way and be too technical, but I doubt it happens often since managers holds so much more power than developers. Google and Facebook have about the right amount of technical focus, most companies are way less technical than that and suffers from it.