A really effective prompt is created by developing an accurate “mental model” of the model, understanding what tools it does and doesn’t have access to, what gives it effective direction and what leads it astray
It's a bit different though; the soft skills you mention are usually realtime or a chore that people don't like doing (writing down specifications / requirements), whereas "prompt engineering" puts people in their problem solving mental mode not dissimilar to writing code.
It's just effective linguistics and speech; what people have called "soft skills" forever is now, obviously, trying to be a science for some reason.