These middle layers are doing a lot more work than you probably realize. I am a little more privy to some of what they do being a senior IC at a FAANG (6 manage

These middle layers are doing a lot more work than you probably realize. I am a little more privy to some of what they do being a senior IC at a FAANG (6 managers away from my CEO) - sometimes managers take on projects that have to be done but are outside their team's scope. The scale of the project may vary depending on what level they are. My own senior manager was in charge of one such project that ended up affecting the whole company (100k+ employees). They might be in high level discussions with executives about plans on a weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly basis (potentially all 4 of these levels, like my own is), and doing advance planning before first level managers and senior ICs become involved. These managers often have to have an acute sense of what kind of product may be needed, but good ones will leave the planning of the details to their reports. Their job is to make sure other teams/orgs are aligned and that their team/org delivers on expectations set by all parties. There becomes a point where it becomes impossible to have everyone be aware of all the knowledge and nuance that is going on without it creating immense noise - when this happens, these middle layers become vital. You still ideally want as little of them as possible, but they all should ideally serve very important purposes. I'm very thankful for all the levels of management in my own organization and company at least (experience may vary of course), it is the best management team I have been under at any workplace - other than my direct manager, each level of management up my chain has over 10 years of management experience apiece.