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Don't get me wrong, I don't think they're valueless. They have great value.
A mate had a massive extension planned and their architect rowed them back as it would have sacrificed too much of the garden and reconfigured the inside to give them everything they wanted. Clearly invaluable.
At the other end a builder mate asked one to design their downstairs beyond what they'd thought of, and the architect just came up with a massive open plan room requiring £00,ks of steels and no real added value in terms of space or property price.
Like most professions people vary, and people vary on the day.
hugo7
In my limited experience of working with an architect (once, and he's an old friend), he has explained that it is his job to look at as many options as possible as often the client will not be considering something or has internally vetoed something right out of the gate because of a fear of additional/ridiculous cost. Part of the architect's job is also to make sure that the client doesn't cut their nose off to spite their face and miss out on something that could add a great deal of value for "not as much as expected" cost. He has been absolutely fantastic in that regard when planning our extension. I would have been paralysed for fear of making the wrong/expensive choices and ended up with a shit design that met none of our needs if he hadn't suggested half of the stuff we are likely to end up with. But if they aren't then also explaining that value, then they are not doing a good enough job.