This is an interesting article. My opinion is... yes and no. Yes, because if someone with zero experience is starting in UX, and intends to land a generalist UX design role, yes they need to know how to design. Showcasing terrible UI is not going to make people want to have a look at their portfolio and dig deeper (that's just based on the reality I've seen and on who gets hired). Just a caveat that not everyone with a graphic design background is able to successfully transfer those skills into UI design, so there's still a learning curve there. And I also agree with the sentiment that getting into UX seems to be seen by some as an "easy way" into tech , when it's not. So coming with the mindset that someone doesn't even need to know how to design is wrong. That being said... No, if we're referring to specialized roles. UX is not just design. We have UX researchers, UX writers, and so on. I personally don't think the UX career path needs to be always starting from generalist to specialist. There are people who already have research skills or writing skills that translate well into the UX design field. They surely need to understand design and UX, but they don't necessarily need to design.