I don't think the person you are replying to was gatekeeping ICs, BUT I have seen a lot of gatekeeping up and down the corporate hierarchy. I've had a high-level manager directly tell me, "Oh, you don't really want to be a Manager, and definitely not a Director. It's so much work and responsibility. You should be happy being an IC!" I'm not sure if he drove away in his Porsche 911 after that, but I'll choose to remember it that way.

Very Huxley. Almost exactly like: "Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas."