I agree there is some overlap with what engineers should know about the business, I guess it's just a matter of where the line is drawn. I also think one of the factors is the size of the team and also the structure of the org. If an org is large enough, then it can afford to have engineers specialize in doing just engineering without thinking about the bigger picture, so long as they have a clear goal in mind. That said, my experience with large orgs is the opposite and it's where they push engineers towards management and leadership a lot more than in other smaller orgs.

In my opinion the productivity of engineering should come from the engineering itself, especially with software systems. Software is about automation. The better the engineering, the more productive the org becomes. This potential is hurt by having engineers worry about what the customer wants or how the business works in detail. But yeah, this varies with what the type of business, and the size and structure of the org.