Your points just hit me directly. I consider myself pretty good with my problem solving skill and ability to learn. I feel like I am better as an IC than a manager. Yet, a few times, I got "convinced" into management role because whether manager left or they couldn't find people with enough knowledge for the position. I have always being able to say "nope". I've been working for 10 years, same big tech company but I switched to different teams every 2 years within the same organization.

Recently, I got into a honest discussion with the senior leadership and basically said "I just want to be an IC and next step would be Principal Engineer". So, they set up a role for me to do "special" assignments: I would pick something I think I could improve either efficiency or accuracy or brand new initiative for the business need. I'm mostly doing reconnaissance works where I would go in and see if this is something feasible to do. Once, I get a proof of concept working, the next step is to get a team of engineers (or current project's team) to discuss and delegate. I have to say I really like this experience so far. It has a feeling like doing consultant works with one big client!