Not in my experience. Or put another way, if you take someone with an MBA or a masters in engineering, neither of them intrinsically has more management skills

Not in my experience. Or put another way, if you take someone with an MBA or a masters in engineering, neither of them intrinsically has more management skills or training. (IF colleges are teaching "management skills" they are not doing a good job of it.) Yes, many engineers do not want to be managers, and unfortunately, too many non-engineers want the power. This is a good thing about engineers and a bad thing about those non-engineers. I've seen lots of good engineers who manage, but almost no business people who are good managers of engineering. I know that what you're saying is a popular perspective, but so is the idea that we should let wall street manage our retirements and real estate is always a good investment. Some of this perspective is self serving.