> 99% of MBA's are certainly clueless about SWE because they never did SWE professionally
Anecdotally, most of the MBAs I know are former coders. The last decade of Silicon Valley thinking it can reinvent commerce from first principles has massively increased the value and leverage of former coders with MBAs.
Anecdotally, I worked with several brilliant engineers who have MBAs. Folks who are extremely technical and can go deep in their fields of expertise, yet they see the bigger picture in terms of business outcomes, and have tools in their toolbox to navigate ambiguity, mitigate escalating complexity, influence senior stakeholders (technical or not), etc.
Of course an MBA is not the only way of acquiring those skills, but it is certainly an effective way. It can be incredibly powerful to someone with already strong technical skills. So I'd agree with OP that this trope is unwarranted and out of touch with reality.
edit: I like OP's edit, replacing "MBA" with "management-consulting thinking". Lots of old school consulting companies come up with recommendations for areas that they have no domain expertise. While it may look good on paper, it's a recipe for disaster, like the original article describes.
Anecdotally, most of the MBAs I know are former coders. The last decade of Silicon Valley thinking it can reinvent commerce from first principles has massively increased the value and leverage of former coders with MBAs.