Do you need to be a good writer to offer good feedback

[milo]

My short answer is no. 
A reader with nothing to offer regarding spelling, grammar, meter, rhyme, enjambment etc. may for example have profound insights into the flaws of a metaphor. The scholar might tick all the boxes for proposing edits to the mechanics, yet miss a larger breakdown that the everyman notices instinctively.

I think you are conflating "good writer" with scholar here.

You don't think a good writer would " miss a larger breakdown that the everyman notices instinctively"?

Thanks for the response

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Hello busker, some interesting points here:

Let us take a different question: does a good writer HAVE to be a good critic? The answer is clearly, no: a good writer (don't know about 'great', or what that bar is) can very well be a lazy critic. Or he might be exhibiting unconscious competence without ever having analysed his own work, or anyone else's, critically. We're all learning machines, but not all of us study the learning process itself, which is the critic's job.

I think this is a great point but it may only hold up in the theoretical.  Also, even if most good writers were bad critics it wouldn't necessarily mean the statement is wrong  (I believe it's a fallacy of the inverse)

Let me ask you, when you receive what you believe to be good crit, does it come from those you consider good writers?  Can you think of an example when you received great crit from someone you don't consider a good writer?

To your question: does a good critic HAVE to be a good writer? Yes and no.
Yes - if you're looking for feedback on what would make a poem better.
No - if you're looking for feedback on what is or what is not working for him as a reader. That feedback is often more valuable than hearing what changes to make, which a lot of the time don't work anyway.

I think this is perhaps the most important point.  Yes, good feedback comes from good readers.  One of the reasons I started with the statement that good readers make good writers.

Thanks