It gets complicated when you look at procurement of aircraft, though. I ran an aircraft procurement programme for a time. The most valuable contributions, bar none, came from the pilots, observers and engineers in the team. They had first hand experience of what was needed, and more importantly, what was key to ensuring the maximum number of cabs were serviceable under challenging operational conditions. They were, without any shadow of doubt, the most important people in the team.
Without their contribution key decisions would have been made 100% by the bean counters. They played a key role in addressing that imbalance, and arguing forcefully for the things they knew were key. Worth every penny of their training cost, just for that knowledge and experience. Also resulted in a tremendous amount of conflict, though, particularly when it came to affordability.