Why are BAs so undervalued?

Perhaps I have a chip on my shoulder but of the standard Troika that kicks off most projects (BA, PM, Arch) the BA is the most often undervalued role. In every single metric I can come up with to measure organisation esteem (Salary, reporting lines, training budgets) of these roles BAs come out third.

Considering the calibre of BAs in most organisations this is pretty understandable, with little organisational support, no clear career path in, no clean career path up or out, a fledgling professional body, and little formal power over a project it's no suprise that BAs end up being dogs-bodies instead of drivers. This is a symptom not a cause though.

In reality a good BA does more to make a project delivery exceptional business value than any one besides the business representatives. Good project management, architecture, technical delivery, etc, all these help you deliver well, and make it cheaper and faster; but if you want it to be actually better for the users - getting the requirements and functional design right is the way to do it and that's the BAs job.

So why the disconnect between the high value and the low valuation? At source I think it comes down to four things:

A) Most BAs are bad at their job, so even if the good ones are tarred by association
B) Deliverables are not as visible or "epic". PMs and Architects get to produce big gannt charts, architecture road-maps, present to steering committees etc. BAs sometimes get this level of visibility much less often, and generally only as a project representative - not as part of something bigger,
C) No organisational power centre to promote the role, and ensure the wider concerns of BAs get an ear. There's no equivalent of the PMO or Enterprise Architecture office for requirements.
D) Facilitators less valuable than deciders in the eyes of modern business culture. This is the big one. Deciding is just considered more powerful and important than facilitation. The ability to allocate resources and make calls is just intrinsically higher status than the facilitating and agreement promoting role that BAs play. It's just our culture.