Yes, typically the reason software engineers don't know how to make money (a premise I actually agree with) is because some product person is trying to translat

Yes, typically the reason software engineers don't know how to make money (a premise I actually agree with) is because some product person is trying to translate the business problem into an engineering problem, rather than exposing the business problem to the engineer directly. IMO too much is lost in this translation step and you end up often with engineers not understanding why the product they're building actually needs to be the way it does, and then a product person chasing them in circles and telling them absolutely everything except what the business problem actually is.