I think this is a change in business climate today - all senior+ engineers in many companies are now expected to have knowledge of business metrics, and that expectation goes up with staff engineers (the new architect name)
I think this expectation has always existed, but engineers have been able to get cover for not understanding or participating. Now it is harder for engineers at any level to cover which means they have to understand the business and participate to a larger degree. This may just mean being more proactive in raising issues affecting metrics through to influencing what those metrics should be.
