Interesting, you've misinterpreted me I think. I'm not sure I said it was a rote task; I said it wasn't web design. I didn't intend to put web production people "below" anyone. They have a very specific skill, a valuable one, that isn't the same skill that web designers have.
In many roles and organizations these may very well be the same people. In my organization, they are typically not as it's hard to find people who are experts at both tasks. The designers produce Photoshop documents of the web page, the producers optimize, slice, and produce HTML and potentially some UI effects.
So while I agree that you could call them designers in some sense (the individuals I know who do this certainly are creative) that muddies the waters a bit when there are people who are Web Designers who don't do what they do. The value is in both roles, and some people, again, fill both roles. But they are nonetheless fundamentally different tasks.
Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.