I think incident.io have done a really great job of putting "product engineer" really front and centre of their recruitment process, and have a bunch of awesome folks / talent there (many hired from GoCardless, my former employer).
On the specialist vs generalist question, I'm curious if OP has opinions on how to pick from amongst the many specialists to go deep in? Product Managers? FE? BE? Subject matter experts? etc
Loving this. I feel like more and more layers of people keep getting added above engineers & engineers keep getting less and less ability to define shape and steer product forward, and it super depresses me seeing the role turned from creative into a mere resource for other people.