Way off course. Replace developer with manager and you still get the same problem.
It is all about knowledge and making decisions. Nothing to do with the fact that software development is a new area.
Architecture (buildings) is a very old trade. And yet you would not dare to measure architect's performance by the number of sheets of drawings they produced.
Some architects are sought even if they produce little drawings.
Most architects produce a large number of fairly similar, mundane designs.
Some architects produce small number of well researched an thought through designs that make them sought after in the market and allow them to charge exorbitant prices for their services. They are name that is attached to the design and the owner of the building will tell their guests this and this architect designed my house.
See, it is not all about the quanitity.
Same goes with fashion design, writing books, and so on.
It is called knowledge work.
It is called this because the person uses their individual knowledge to perform the work rather than some kind of reproducible recipe.
A car mechanic that only looks up procedures in the book is one thing.
A car mechanic that has intimate understanding of the car and experience solving various types of problem is a knowledge worker. He might listen to your car's engine sound and go directly to solving the problem and his performance compared to the other guy will be in no way correlated with the amount of time he spent on the problem or number of times he hit his hammer.
It is all about knowledge and making decisions. Nothing to do with the fact that software development is a new area.
Architecture (buildings) is a very old trade. And yet you would not dare to measure architect's performance by the number of sheets of drawings they produced.
Some architects are sought even if they produce little drawings.
It is all about knowledge and decisions.