Yeah. I agree with you, as I have both the academic research skills and the SDE level programming skills as a DS (by only doing a masters I was able to get out

Yeah. I agree with you, as I have both the academic research skills and the SDE level programming skills as a DS (by only doing a masters I was able to get out of academia earlier and develop some SDE skills instead of writing a dissertation). But every once in a while we hire someone who is in their early 30s and just finished academia, and despite sucking at engineering, can blow everyone away scientifically. I think a well crafted 2-pizza team can support 1 or 2 of those people.