Because there are only so many jobs that let the techies call the shots. A good portion of the coding gigs are in support of new or existing business. This mean

Because there are only so many jobs that let the techies call the shots. A good portion of the coding gigs are in support of new or existing business. This means you do the grunt work to build a product dreamed up by the business people that integrates with "legacy" system. In turn, this locks you into specific platforms and tools with little to no leeway to "call the shots" outside of naming your variables foo instead of bar. Also, consider the fact that some people want jobs like that. They can walk in the door at 8/9am and be out by 4/5pm with no worries and few long hours. Not all techies have the drive and desire to "call the shots", shoot up the social ladder, and achieve some level of public recognition for their work. For a coder who wants to work and do hard things, getting stuck at a non-technologist company could be akin to being in coder's hell. For a coder who want's a stable 9-5 and lots of free time to do other things--like hang out with friends/family--the "low status" work doesn't really look that low status anymore. It's all about cost/benefit analysis for each individual than extrapolation to a group of people.