IT:AD:Patterns:Designing from the UI will kill your company

Managers are not supposed to know how to develop or put together the architecture of an application. If they did, they would still be developers, and not managers. Even if they did develop at some point in the past, it's doubtful that they were good developers – or they would not have switched out to become low/mid-level managers, for less pay.

So you can safely ignore their input on how the app should be assembled. What you can do is give them your considered technical expertese on how best to put the app together for the current delivery – as well as all future delivereris.