This YTS article on The Front-End Architect was posted while I was ill, so I forgot to mention it.
I totally agree with the sentiment. Working out the layout, the flow and the use cases for the interface of a website is a full time job, and that fact needs to be appreciated by more people.
Even now "architecting" a website system means getting the object model and code correct, when the people who count, the users, will never see whether your code is nice or not.
To ignore the user is to ignore the primary function of your website.