I think there’s a continuum here. I’m sure we’ve all been stuck (or heard of the project) with some guy who thinks he’s an architect (but has been hired as a coder) and can sit at his desk for weeks produce lots of docs, but 0 lines of code. Sometimes that’s good for the project - and sometimes it sinks it.

Sometimes we’re paid to think, and sometimes we’re paid to code. Deciding which activity is more economically viable to the company should probably not be left up to us. That’s what they hire managers for after all...