Firstly I am a proponent of the idea of software as a new form of literacy - it is eating the world and as such if you are literate you run rings round the illiterate - no matter what your age.

But

companies are pyramids - and some roles (like sales) mean their value to the company can be measured on an individual basis. But most roles cannot - and the further away from the customer you are the more it is true

As such the only metric available is "number of people reporting to you"

It would be nice to find some other metric - there may not be one.

As such the push away from coding into management is inexorable. if we look at highly literate companies (say Washington Post) then the managing editor spends most time not writing but managing (with some reading involved)

to;dr - we have two antagonistic forces - being software literate is for now a force multiplier so why would you not keep doing it? But most organisations can only measure management ladders - so if you want pay or security you climb.

Perhaps the book "Developer Hegemony" offers some answers?