[facet1ous]

There are a few "hardcore" staff/prinicpal engineers at my company (a well known tech unicorn). They are basically OGs who were a big part of the company's early success. Really smart and saavy guys who are left alone to focus on executing on big stuff.

The reality for other staff engineers here is exactly opposite though - you're not allowed to just be "executing" and your day consists of being stuck in meetings, doc writing, and management-lite. Honestly it's so bureaucratic and so far removed from the actual tech I really got turned off from that career path as I got more visibility into it.

For smaller companies it's probably much more fulfilling though.