You are not alone here my friend. I too am an Architect. Put very simply, our job is to bridge the technical-managerial gap. For all those devs on this thread

You are not alone here my friend. I too am an Architect. Put very simply, our job is to bridge the technical-managerial gap. For all those devs on this thread saying we add no value or simply get in the way... What you don't see is all the meetings we have with senior stakeholders and c-suite level management where we explain to them why they need something, and how it's going to happen, and in words and diagrams that they understand. You call it BS, but in my experience what devs are NOT good at is summarising a problem or a solution into a single slide that conveys only the information needed to make an informed decision. I used to be one of those devs that thought everyone in the room had the same knowledge I had, and could keep up with the highly detailed descriptions I was sharing. Now I know different. Also, how do you think that you devs get given the deliverables you do? Someone has to step back and look at the whole infrastructure holistically and provide an informed steer on what the solution to a problem should look like and how it should fit into the architectural landscape yet also deliver what the business actually needs, and more often than not, not what someone 'wants', and also within a specified budget. We have to keep up with all the IT trends that cover the technology in use within the organisation, and be quick to pivot should something new appear that becomes the new IT strategy (something we also contribute heavily to). Being an architect is a thankless job, but as other have said, it pays well and is a natural progression for ex-devs or engineers who don't want to be people managers. That's certainly how I ended up being one. All that said, I don't enjoy my job, but no-one wants a 50 year old engineer or programmer who asks for an Architects salary.