He's at a level where he's part of that technical buffer layer. And that's likely the problem. (Note: my speculation. I haven't read his internal goodbye and

He's at a level where he's part of that technical buffer layer. And that's likely the problem. (Note: my speculation. I haven't read his internal goodbye and wouldn't make it public if I had). An L6 with a good L8 for air cover can kinda hide behind the SI rating, and because they never have direct contact with VPs, they can continue doing the necessary-but-not-glamorous part of keeping Google going. An L8/L9 has that direct contact with VPs, so there's nowhere to hide.