[justonepost]

In rare instances it'll work if you're incredibly in the top 5% of gifted. But, the thing with that, is only 5% of engineers are in that group.

[plekter]

So you see it as a general career progression impediment - even the gifted gets "slowed down" progression wise?

Are you talking from personal experience, or guessing? I strongly suspect a lot of this depends heavily on how the talent review process works in the company this takes place in. A gifted engineer will likely get recognized anyways, but an average engineer will need the review process to look beyond face value.