I think this is a nice strawman. The difference between an engineer that writes truly good code and pushes the team forward, and one that is simply the only one

I think this is a nice strawman. The difference between an engineer that writes truly good code and pushes the team forward, and one that is simply the only one left that understands their own mess should be obvious to anyone, except maybe the most stereotypically clueless manager. "10x" is obviously a buzzword and not a literal measurement, but is there any real doubt that productivity differences exist? Or is is just fashionable to not admit this anymore?