I don't want the janitor's role either, but that person isn't in charge of me. Engineering managers are glorified secretaries. We should replace them with actual secretaries that are subordinate to engineers.
That's not a manager, that's a secretary, which is my point. Engineering groups don't need managers, they need lead engineers and clerical staff, similar to a group of lawyers or doctors.
Managers jobs are typically kind of like a secretary but more. But more of a jack of all trades. Making sure the budget is correct for this year so we can hire the right amount of people (accountant). Jim on the third row needs a lot more hand holding than usual because his wife is in chemo (HR). Going to the upper management to make sure that 3 of your co-workers get the recognition they deserve (cheerleader). Sitting in that 3 hour meeting working out who is going to pay for that feature the sales guys must have (negotiator). Plus a dozen other things. If that position did not exist you know who would be doing that? You and all of your coworkers would. Are a lot of people bad at that? Yep. But some are good too.
The point of my question is to make people stop and think about the chesterton's fence of why is that position there. For example your janitor example. Extremely well defined position. Most people do not want it (including yourself).