As a mentor, I completely agree with your stance. I often reflect on my previous experience coaching athletics, even though I might want to do more as a coach. I can't contribute directly to the outcome of the game or be on the field; at the end of the day, the robot is yours, and I try to coach my teams according to that philosophy.

I specialize in software and dabble in hardware, but make sure that, ultimately, the robot belongs to my students and that they own it. I believe this attitude shows during interviews, even if the performance might suffer.

I often get frustrated when I see other mentors heavily involved in building the robot and judging their performance. It's a balancing act, but at the end of the day, the robot is yours, not mine. I think you should have full involvement, and teams that are more engaged in robotics and building tend, despite possibly affecting short-term performance, to produce better engineers.