That's just manager talk for "we weren't needed here". For example, you say "important role" but who called it important? Were the engineers demanding someone do this job, or was it presumed to be an important job when someone was building out the team?
If someone came into a highly-demanded (by the team itself) role and turned the responsibilities around into work the team can take care of on its own, that's valuable work for sure. But if this was just a role created by an executive as a result of, "We've always needed one of these", then maybe not so much.
If someone came into a highly-demanded (by the team itself) role and turned the responsibilities around into work the team can take care of on its own, that's valuable work for sure. But if this was just a role created by an executive as a result of, "We've always needed one of these", then maybe not so much.