For this work, there should be equal rewards for ICs and managers. That is, ICs should get equal probability to get to level X in the company as managers. This actually used to be the case in old big tech, in early days. ICs can get to all the way to Director and Distinguished level with equal probability of their managers. But during last couple of decades everything changed. Big tech career ladder now states that merely making impact is not good enough but one needs to "scale" the impact. This is sheepish way of saying that one must be manager in order to claim "scaling". Consequently, there no higher level promos in big tech if you are mere IC. Unless this is solved, everything else is just talk and wishful thinking.