To offer a different point of view - in theory, it's not mandatory to be a programmer and understand the technologies at a developmental level to become an architect.
The goals of the programming certs (
SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD, etc) is to show experience and knowledge of the APIs used for developing software with the technology. SCEA operates on a slightly different level, more on the basis of understanding what each piece of the technology pie does rather than how it does it or how to implement it.
All that being said, I think there is certainly something to be said for going through the process and understanding the contents of the exams such as SCBCD before attempting the SCEA exam, but I don't by any means think it's absolutely necessary, as there's not terribly much overlap between them.