As someone who's in the tech industry, it is beyond me why we still adhere to this antiquated structure that originated hundreds of years ago.
It is unfortunate that as companies get bigger, they get bloated with useless middle managers, and these same morons are responsible for overhiring the minions as part of their empire building who eventually get laid off during economic downturns.
At my company, managers are mostly people managers, notorious for not contributing anything technically, and they still get to decide your ratings.
Many managers would defend their positions saying that good managers serve as shit buffers, they set scopes for the team, blah blah blah, but the reality is many of them are just passing down orders from the top, where each layer dilutes the message.
As for me, managers more often than not are just big elephants in the room, disrupting the team and ruining people's mental health with their insecurities and irrelevant meddling.
The reality is, most people go into management for power and money. Really good unicorn engineers end up being principal, distinguished engineers or technical fellows.
Many managers in the tech industry usually defend their position saying that hierarchy is human nature and that good managers help grow ICs, but ultimately, the primary purpose of manager class is not much different from that of the slave masters of the past – making sure their reports do the work and manage them out if they don't.
To the managers who say hierarchy is part of the human nature and hence cannot be replaced:
people said the same thing about monarchy and slavery for thousands of years.
People in America thought slavery was ok less than 200 years ago.
I hope the day comes, whether it be in the 22nd century, or in the 23rd century, when future people will look at modern corporate hierarchy represented by manager -> senior manager -> director -> senior director -> vp, and view it the same way we currently view slavery and monarchy and laugh at its stupidity.