This is indeed an important discussion. I was looking for some similar experience in the top few comments but couldn't find it, so I thought about writing my own. From my experience its about the person in the role, not the role itself. Two of the best managers I had were non-technical but they could read people. They kept their distance from the technical work but would step in when required to control. Ofcourse this also means that they hired good engineers to begin with. A good engineering team can run by itself when it comes to technical work.