There’s no justification for it to exist. It’s like saying every bus needs a steerer and a gas pedal pusher. This is worse than a single driver, but hey it creates another job

Then there wouldn't be a justification for architects and DB specialists to exist. It's a separation of skills into a designated role.

DB specialists are make-work too, unless you are working at AWS or some other massive provider. Architect is also make-work. Someone who makes technical decisions and orders engineers around but doesn't code. LMAO.

I worked at a large telco, between prod and dev and test we had a couple of hundred oracle dbs running, plus probably that again in vendor supplied odd custom stuff.

DB Specialists were essential.

We also had an architect who was trying his best to keep track of everything, design the future and attempt to keep in all almost sane. It was a ginormous mess. Without him it would have been utter chaos.

The value of any given role depends on the org and context and situation