[ineedasername]

forces you to deal with many levels of management that influence not only "what" you program, but sometimes also "how" you do it"

That's because there's a lot more choice when you're working at a higher level. If you're working with an embedded system with an AVR, you're choices may be C/C++ and Assembly-- No need to get into an argument over the latest shiny framework.

You'll never really be isolated from office politics or poor management though. Things like feature creep or changing specs etc. also won't go away.