Noteable to me is that the only people with any power are consultants (sometimes) or managers. There are very few paths where the very good, wise, experienced t

Noteable to me is that the only people with any power are consultants (sometimes) or managers. There are very few paths where the very good, wise, experienced techies get much self-determininacy, much power. You have to become a manager & fight your stake via politics to gain control. Probably one of the key reasons SRE & devops roles are semi-popular. Your target is techies, and you have much more leeway about where you want to go. There used to be architect roles, but they feel- to me- fairly outmoded?