Maybe look outside your industry? I think you're focusing on the technical aspects of your skills, but if you've done that for 16+ years and are doing it well, you could do paperwork practically anywhere for better pay than that, I think. If I were you, I'd start applying at various office jobs and see what happens.

Sorta related - We hire junior programmers occasionally, and we used to focus on the technical skills. Turns out, the soft skills were a lot more useful. We had one applicant that sold us on her ability to get stuff done and understand what the business needs, instead. She had at least the minimum technical skill of course, but what got her the job (even though we had to make room in the budget for another developer!) was her sales pitch for her soft skills. She's been a great coworker, and we've since changed our focus towards soft skills like attention to detail.

My point is that it's very likely your skills do translate to other jobs in other industries, and not necessarily in ways that you can see from your current desk. Get out there and apply!