Anybody fairly handy can build a garden shed. If someone showed up calling themselves an "garden shed architect" and stood off to the side directing traffic I'm sure the "builders" would find it and them to be a complete waste of space. (wait cheesy pun alert?)
However, how many of us would like to get into an elevator ready to shot us to the 100th floor knowing that there was no architect on the project as all the builders decided that was an unnecessary title and those functions could easily be handled by the GC?
Amazon, Heroku etc has made it much easier to build garden sheds - there's a lot more garden sheds around per large building than there used to be. So I suspect if you believe the SA title to be completely unnecessary it's most likely because you're building sheds not buildings. Doesn't mean we still don't want and need them for those larger buildings.
But there is a difference between software construction and building construction.
The difference is that for software, anything that would normally be "construction work" in another field is or can be done in an automated fashion. Thus it can be argued that all programming is done at the "design" or the "architecture" level. That isn't to be say that the software architect position is alway illegitimate. But gives one an idea why, in contrast to sky-scraper construction, some people might legitimately want to dispense with architect as a distinct position.
However, how many of us would like to get into an elevator ready to shot us to the 100th floor knowing that there was no architect on the project as all the builders decided that was an unnecessary title and those functions could easily be handled by the GC?
Amazon, Heroku etc has made it much easier to build garden sheds - there's a lot more garden sheds around per large building than there used to be. So I suspect if you believe the SA title to be completely unnecessary it's most likely because you're building sheds not buildings. Doesn't mean we still don't want and need them for those larger buildings.