I don't disagree with the article. Within a tech company, it's obvious why they value engineers. In a "staff" you might also be highly valued or you might not be. As an example, I've recently noticed that home depot has a superb website. Looking at the quality of it, they've obviously put a lot of thought and resources into it. It's something they value. The people working on it might be in the "staff" bucket, but I'd bet the C-Suite is well aware of the impact they are having. On the other hand, I've seen companies where the "staff" engineers are completely disregarded.