Ask HN: Why being a consultant makes you feel more valuable?

I've been a senior software engineer for one of the big 4 in silicon valley as well as a consultant for a huge IT company. I was making way more money as a software engineer. We're talking +200K/year versus 150k/y (consultant). Though, I felt much more valuable and respected as a consultant, having a corporate card, traveling around, booking flights, hotels, restaurants, meeting with all kinds of large companies. I was an expert in a specific domain even though technically speaking, things weren't super advanced compared to when I was a senior software engineer. As a software engineer, I was stuck 10h/day in front of my computer in an open space, micro-managed, working on a tiny little features that would be integrated into a gigantic product, moving cards on a whiteboard, fixing bugs, standup meetings. I felt like a little kid at school. But I was making more money! Why do we have this imbalance?