Hmmmm…I agree with parts of this and disagree with others.

No, not “everyone is a designer”. Just because you have access to the same tools doesn’t make you a designer. Everyone can participate in design, but professional designers show their value as expert facilitators who drive the design process.

You must have had a lot of bad experiences with cowboy UX designers because the bar you’ve set for good UX process is very low. Either that, or you work with some *amazing* one-in-a-million clients who are exceptional UX people. I haven’t come across many clients (even really switched-on tech-savvy ones — of which most of mine are) that produce professional-quality UX thinking and deliverables.

I can say from 18 years of personal experience that one of the traits my clients most value and remember is my ability to think through all the details they don’t think of to set a project up well for success. How many clients of yours design users flows and wireframes that consider way more than just the happy path? Sometimes the happy path is only 25% of an experience!

You’ve simplified this down to be essentially saying:
* Personas are usually a waste of time (I half agree with that)
* Anyone who can draw in Figma can create good user flows and wireframes (I don’t agree with that at all)
* Designers need to get off their high horses and accept help and collaboration where they can (yes I agree).

My summary: clients should be intimately involved in the UX design process to play to their strengths of knowing their business better than anyone else does. But that doesn’t mean you should leave the UX design up to them. If you do, why did they hire you in the first place? You’ve just turned yourself into an expendable commodity.