I guess I should have added some context. I have been (and keep swinging between) ic and management roles (including managers) regularly. I love coding and try

I guess I should have added some context. I have been (and keep swinging between) ic and management roles (including managers) regularly. I love coding and try to sneak in some when I have time (as a manager). But that a manager should always code is not something i found helping the team or the manager - all the time. One size does not fit all. In startups yes frankly there is hardly a need for a manager and it is TL, TPM, EM role combined into one. In larger cos though a most managers are innundated with all kinds of non technical work (meetings, alignment, perf management, product discussions etc). While having coded before is a great thing keeping uptodate is actually robbing the manager of time for all other things on the plate (and those actually benefit the team beyond what meets the eye). Besides at large orgs there is also so much technical (think large scale design and integrations) knowledge that a manager needs to keep track of which also needs time investment. Then there are various level/career related things that necessitate one or more TLs a manager needs to work with or manage and coding often gets seen as a manager "not doing their job" or worse stealing a junior engineers opportunities. There's a lot more that is very environmental but hope sets some context.