That could explain some situations, but I very well doubt it's as simple as "managers are unappreciated". Some managers are given wide latitude in controlling

That could explain some situations, but I very well doubt it's as simple as "managers are unappreciated". Some managers are given wide latitude in controlling their teams work. Some managers execute on that, others don't. Some managers are given a lot of control over hiring. Some execute on that, other don't. Some managers are given wide latitude over reviews. Some managers execute on that while others don't. The reason managers are perceived to be less useful in tech usually, in my experience, boils down to where they spend their time and political capital. They either spend it on their team and enabling them or on themselves and enabling themselves. All of the above are ways that could go either way and the feeling is generally an accumulation of those decisions over time. I guess I could surmise that there's just a lot of "bad" managers in tech, but I don't think that's a useful sentiment without knowing why.