> The Scrum Guide would have you believe there are only two appropriate questions to ask a Product Owner

A lot of people over-interpret rigid hierarchy’s, when Scrum is supposed to be the opposite.

From the actual scrum guide: https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html

> The Product Owner is also accountable for effective Product Backlog management… The Product Owner may do the above work or may delegate the responsibility to others. Regardless, the Product Owner remains accountable.

It’s entirely compatible with Scrum for the engineers to sit with customers and come up with backlog items, and the PO to take the role of ensuring backlog quality and reviewing strategic direction of the work items being added by developers.