[Bo102010]

I don't doubt that the skills that make a good system admin are distinct from those that make a good engineer.

I do doubt that the people making and enforcing IT policies that, e.g. lead to insecure versions of Java being installed on thousands of machines, are more capable than I am at managing the machine I need to use.

[mkopinsky]

It's not only a question of skills, it's a question of knowledge.

I am a good developer, but I don't have the slightest clue about e.g. ActiveDirectory. The IT department in my company is nothing spectacular, but when it comes to the kind of issues that I know nothing about, I am glad they have set policies that I just need to follow unthinkingly.