Speaking from the POV someone who used to be on the engineering/drafting side and just switched roles and started my apprentice ship I can make a few observations
1) Charging for CAD Backgrounds - A lot of time and overhead goes into creating the backgrounds. Anyone doing the work should have access to the drawings - absolutely. But only the physical drawings. Why should the engineer/achitect give away his product for someone to turn a profit.
I do agree that many AE's "sell their stamp" and let real crap get out there.
Too many times though - by the time the job starts construction. The AE has been beat up on by the Customer and the GC that they can be really unresponsive.
Many times the same stuff that the GC does to aggravate the indivdual trades - aggravated the AE before the project got off the ground.
Nickel/diming and the whole "do we really need this" or "can't we just do it this way" etc etc.
"Stuff" roles downhill....
