Yes. Many artists have the skills necessary to become great advocates for the user because they have developed a healthily individualistic attitude.
I'd say artists are a bit less conscientious, in general, than CS graduates, which makes them less well-suited to managing technical complexity and avoiding future problems. I wonder if your idea that artists are good at detecting technical debt might be something specific to you, rather than a generic trait of artists?
Yeah, that's definitely a possibility, but I'd like to say it was my designer's intuition that quickly speaks up and says "Nah, that's a crappy approach, I don't know why yet but dig deeper and fix this nagging feeling of terrible."
I'd say artists are a bit less conscientious, in general, than CS graduates, which makes them less well-suited to managing technical complexity and avoiding future problems. I wonder if your idea that artists are good at detecting technical debt might be something specific to you, rather than a generic trait of artists?