Coding per se was never the crux of most seasoned software engineers.
The name engineering hints at it.
> skills like problem-solving, communication, and selling ideas are becoming just as essential
They always were. Coding was the easy part and you definitely were coding the wrong thing if you were not "problem solving".
Your conclusion of giving value to those things is right regardless of how you get there so I'll stop being an asshole but just remember that it was never specifically about coding but about automated systems with simplicity, maintainability and evolvability as characteristics.
You must have heard the phrase about spending more time reading than writing (code). Or thinking.
The name engineering hints at it.
> skills like problem-solving, communication, and selling ideas are becoming just as essential
They always were. Coding was the easy part and you definitely were coding the wrong thing if you were not "problem solving".
Your conclusion of giving value to those things is right regardless of how you get there so I'll stop being an asshole but just remember that it was never specifically about coding but about automated systems with simplicity, maintainability and evolvability as characteristics.
You must have heard the phrase about spending more time reading than writing (code). Or thinking.