[dudul]

Managing and engineering are two different paths. I'm not saying one person can't do both (I do, 50/50), but they require different skills. I don't think one is "better" than the other, they are just different.

An engineer focuses on the product, on the code, on the technical solution to a business problem. A manager has to take care of the people, help them grow, make sure they are happy, challenged.

IMO a real manager is rarely involved in the product development. And if he is, it should be solely to help remove roadblocks that are slowing down the team. Forget about counting how many story points the team can do, or how many bugs they closed last week. Just make sure people are happy and learning new things.