[scottLobster]

Depends on the industry. None of my current managers have anything less than 10 years experience, even at the lowest level (I'm at a big old defense contractor). First promotion from associate developer to staff developer typically comes after two years, and it's not due to lack of talent. Likewise our team leads and SMEs are often pushing 10-20 years and are still non-managerial. The program would likely fall apart for a few months if all of them just left at once, so I wouldn't say they lack value. :)

A manager with a scant 3 years of experience undervaluing a "solo dev" (whatever that is, unless you're talking about 1-person companies) with 10 years experience sounds like a good setup for an episode of Silicon Valley.