While I see what you're saying, there is a reason why these articles keep popping up, and that's because this "product-minded engineer" IS an actual role that is essential to developing good products. However, it has no name we can agree on so it doesn't exist in an organization.

We have software engineers that are supposed to be craftsmen, but everyone who can code uses the function title without any requirement on education or skillset. And then there's a huge gap to project and product managers, who often have no or limited technical experience and skills. Bridging that gap is what all these articles are all about, because they observe either a skilled product manager with technical chops or a developer with soft skills filling it.

Regardless, the point is that nobody hires for this role. Someone picks up the slack if you're lucky, or your product crashes and burns. Now these articles do seem to portray this person as a Messiah, but that's because he/she kind of is; an extraordinary person who saves your product, while it wasn't even in the job description!

Well no shit Sherlock, if you open a restaurant but didn't hire a cook of course you'd deify the waiter who whips up a mean lasagna. But how about you just hire a damn cook instead.

Anyway, now I've started to rant. The point is that we should see these articles as a sign that we (collectively as the software industry) are missing a role in our teams and should hire for it. Sure it's nice if this person is a genius, but hard work can replace a lot of geniuses.