Having worked (as a consultant/contractor) for a few businesses in the field, I can say that my experience was closer to "grateful for your help" than to "an overpaid lab assistant". I even recall once, in a meeting, being referred to (by a senior staff scientist with a Ph.D.) as "the technical guy", causing me to wonder at how someone who does gene sequencing thinks of programming as being more technical.

But, YMMV.