I’m struggling to imagine a project that would require more than one talented engineer and a bucket of tokens anymore.

I think perhaps the assumption that engineering managers should have any employees may be outdated.

I can imagine average and mediocre engineers equipped with tokens could create chaos and debt on a scale never before imaginable, so it’s easy to see how orgs who still have these employees around are struggling with the transition.

The reality is you need to get rid of them all, and replace them with the most experienced highest paid person you can find. In the near future that person will become obsolete too.