Ah yes, comparing a well funded company to two enthusiastic nerds coding in their free time, that's a fair take.

You are comparing paid labor to unpaid labor, not a company with PMs vs a company without PMs.

There is no panacea to hiring and retaining good engineers, all I am arguing is that the money spent on a PM is much better spent as Christmas bonus to the engineering teams.

However, if you believe that what takes building great products is an unqualified semi technical person with a made up role and title who doesn't do any work themselves but passing messages back and forth and strutting around like a peacock calling all the shots, be my guest.