QA is an entirely different job from development, and does not use the same skill sets. what is needed is for good QA people to be paid and respected on par wit

QA is an entirely different job from development, and does not use the same skill sets. what is needed is for good QA people to be paid and respected on par with devs, not for it to be viewed as a low tier job where you can get "promoted" to development. promotion for a tester should ideally be to senior QA engineer, with more autonomy to come up with effective test plans, designing and implementing automated tests, being a team lead for more junior testers, etc .