As someone who has also been on the journey from early employee into project and team leadership, a formal management role, and then back to individual contribu

As someone who has also been on the journey from early employee into project and team leadership, a formal management role, and then back to individual contributorship, I kind of agree, though at the same time I also don't really care about the title, and I know that being a "senior" or "staff" level individual contributor clearly implies a bunch of those other pieces, including things like soft leadership, independence to pursue strategic initiatives, etc.