Exactly - not having empathy towards customer is something our entshittified big-tech platforms can afford, at least for a while. For a nimble startup, that is the path to death. I agree that engineers absolutely should not be shielded away from their design decisions. Not that they should sit on support calls all day long, but spending half a day per quarter in such calls can be very revealing. Some of the best understanding of my customer pains, and sometimes even issues I would have not even aware of, came out of talking to customers, or just listening in to the calls.