I couldn’t more strongly disagree. You may be able to fake being a software engineer — and note the use of the word “Engineer” and not “Developer”, “Programmer” or “Coder” — without a CS degree, but Architecture isn’t just writing software. It is thinking in terms of systems, processes, scaling, performance, time, space, etc.

Some product managers have to bridge between customers or stakeholders and architects, some don’t. In shops where the product manager is expected to be fluent in both “the customer wants …” and “the software will work like …”, product managers absolutely must have the skills needed to bridge that gap in a constructive and productive manner.