A Consultant, project manager needs to know a lot more than coding.
This is because many things are possible in theory, but not practical in practice.
That is; one must work within available technology. Unless, of course you have unlimited budgets and no time deadlines.
This is, in fact exactly where I am at with my current project. I am trying to find out about everything that it available that I can incorporate so that I can then evaluate what can be applied and customized and what I need to develop from scratch. This involves analysis of networking capabilities and communication between devices.
Perhaps in more simple applications these skills would be less necessary. In fact there are some users that can work out their own little projects all by themselves. Such projects would not need a "Project Manager" at all. The thing is that it is sometimes hard to see what the potential complications are. You have to know or half to learn.
Max Maxwell