I don't think this is the case. Without having written code, readcode, maintained code, thought about architecture you do not understand technology and can't b

I don't think this is the case. Without having written code, readcode, maintained code, thought about architecture you do not understand technology and can't be a tech leader. Only as a coder you can grok technology (I even organized "Coding for manager" workshops as CTO, business leaders thanked me for the insights they did get to better interact with technology or manage outsourcing projects). Yes people are very important, yes software development is a people problem, yes you need to apply technology to business. Should you write code on your job? No. From my experience - at least this was the case with me - under a certain percentage of time of coding you do not understand the system, implicit assumptions and are not very productive. I've brought down a multi-million user website as a tech leader because I thought I could still write production code :-) Nevertheless I love love love coding and still write code every day in my spare time. Currently I write Rust code to understand the concept of the borrow checker as somethings other languages do not have (after 40+ years of coding). Gladly all my CTO coachees have been coders, none of them write code in their day-to-day job.