You hit the nail on the head. Beyond the scope of HR, in my experience it's the mix of both breadth of knowledge (context) and the depth of understanding (skil

You hit the nail on the head. Beyond the scope of HR, in my experience it's the mix of both breadth of knowledge (context) and the depth of understanding (skill + experience) that is most useful. Having a high-level understanding allows you to step back outside of the 'work' to instead focus on the objective, and someone with significant background knowledge and experience can utilize that to first conceptualize the optimal approach before hammering the nails. Knowing what to apply, where, and when is equally as important as how. And there are fantastic programmers & hackers on each end of the spectrum, but in my experience developing that contrast is more intrinsically valuable.