This resonates with me so much, I stumbled into data science out of University a decade ago. Left it to do SWE and came back to it in the last 3 years.
So many data scientists are full of themselves thinking they are magicians and software developers are blacksmiths who are beneath them.
Incrementally at my company the SWE's have automated so much of the data scientists workflow that they end up just as you describe, using the tooling and being relegated to becoming analysts.
After 3 years coming back to this field, I see the writing on the wall: In the 90's most models were created by software developers, in the 2030's most models will be created by software developers.
So many data scientists are full of themselves thinking they are magicians and software developers are blacksmiths who are beneath them.
Incrementally at my company the SWE's have automated so much of the data scientists workflow that they end up just as you describe, using the tooling and being relegated to becoming analysts.
After 3 years coming back to this field, I see the writing on the wall: In the 90's most models were created by software developers, in the 2030's most models will be created by software developers.