> what managers are bringing to the table

What I noticed in my org, are the senior managers are the ones who get to talk to the business people and get to muddle the waters and do a lot of repetitive work.

Sometimes things do not get done until a project manager or senior dev actually talks to the business person and gets the correct requirements out.

I don't know why it is this way at my org, but the IT director does not want to talk to PMs, Devs, or Analysts. He would rather have a top level circle of senior managers who insulate him from the actual work.

As a senior engineer I don't really agree. I've had good and bad managers over time, and the presence of good managers has been key when I've had more success and satisfaction.

For me, the good ones help me do the work that I am usually bad at or don't want to do: the nitty gritty of task prioritization, keeping track of the a bunch of the higher level details, parsing leadership's emanation for product direction, etc. That, and acting like a shield to deflect any badness that might come down from above.

I like contributing opinions and so on to all that, but I don't want to be the person attending all those meetings and being the final arbiter -- at least not right now. So I'm very happy to have someone there doing that, so I can operate more at the technical level.

I guess I'm a bit ADHD, but a lot of what managers do doesn't motivate me, sorry. So, yes, please to having someone fill those shoes. If they're good.

But a bad manager, yes... a problem. Luckily it's a competitive job market, and my skills such as they are can be used elsewhere, with better management.

I appreciate a good manager, but not really middle managers. I moved to DevOps and I report directly to a VP and it is a game-changer compared to when I reported to a middle-manager in Support.

However, the Principal (senior) Engineer I work with can be a bit of an angry ass sometimes and I am unsure he would make a good manager.

Same. In my experience about 1 in 5 has been some help to the team (the rest hinder or contribute neutrally), but even they have an easier/less stressful job and work far less hours and apply far less mental bandwidth to each task. I'm convinced becoming a manager should mean a pay cut.

Manager are for managing low skilled workers that need supervision and help. The idea that you hire "the best SWEs" and then you have to slap a manager to oversee them like they are burger flippers is ridiculous on its face.

SWEs might benefit from some help from experienced technical leadership - someone to consult, get feedback from etc. and from bureaucratic assistance (help get paperwork out of the way), but typically "SWE manager" position is akin to fast-food chain manager in a SWE shop.