That's very exceptionalistic (to stick with your word). You could apply this logic to any practitioner discipline, like medicine, research, sports, constructio

That's very exceptionalistic (to stick with your word). You could apply this logic to any practitioner discipline, like medicine, research, sports, construction, cooking, etc.. Of course someone with practitioner experience will be (or appear?) better able to manage people doing that work, because they understand the finer details. But people management itself is also a learned skill, and that's where in my experience companies fall down on the training sometimes. They assume that the practitioner experience and the seniority is enough, and it's not. Then there's the whole empathy/EQ side of things. Being a manager requires a ton of emotional labour and that's not for everyone.