I think the challenge is that ICs get "outed" pretty quickly if they underperform. Managers can be more at the whim of whether they have a good team or bad. A

I think the challenge is that ICs get "outed" pretty quickly if they underperform. Managers can be more at the whim of whether they have a good team or bad. A bad manager with a good team can take a long time to get "outed" while a good manager with a bad team might get whacked anyway. Upper Management doesn't really know how to measure the effectiveness of line managers. So it can make tech senior ICs pretty cynical about their management, especially if you are in a role as I often am where I am directly engaged by clients (directly receiving new requests), planning sprints, sizing tasks, planning roadmpaps, in hours of meetings per day, etc. At some point you wonder if your line manager is just an empty suit.