Depends a lot on each company, but managers are responsible for hiring/firing, holding their teams accountable to quarterly targets, shielding their team from p

Depends a lot on each company, but managers are responsible for hiring/firing, holding their teams accountable to quarterly targets, shielding their team from politics, helping each engineer grow professionally (including having one on ones with everybody and doing performance reviews), and making sure the team gets the resources they need to do good work (which can include managing budgets and arguing for more capital allocation). At some places they are also responsible for coding (this also depends on seniority), and at many smaller startups they will also play the role of product/program manager since the companies haven't hired for those positions yet or are not even aware of what those positions are. I can't comment on specific cases, but I think most engineers are wildly unaware of just how much work it is to play politics at any company, and it's an unspoken part of the job for any manager.