I mostly run large teams who have handled both internal and consumer facing services. The software devs who don't have an inclination to understand the customer

I mostly run large teams who have handled both internal and consumer facing services. The software devs who don't have an inclination to understand the customer problem generally have not been highly effective and are not people I would use as role models or for setting expectations to others. I'll add to this that I do not believe there is a place for an "architect" role that is separate from a developer role. Good developers learn to think about architecture and do so with larger impact as they become more senior. "architects" who don't code tend to be "architecture astronauts" who do not help you ship value fast, at quality, to your customers.