[SLSMan]

I did this. I was a developer my whole adult life and jumped from that to law school in my 30's. Graduated, become an attorney, decided I wanted to code again after a few years, and became a developer again. By the time I made the decision to switch back, I was out of hands-on development for about the same amount of time as you. I worked on a lot of different things as a developer, so it was hard to pick just one thing to brush up on. I figured I would try to get an interview for something I was interested in, then brush up on whatever tech stack the company was looking for. I applied for a job that required a niche skill I had and was surprised I got a call after my first job application. I got past the HR phone screen and had about a two-week gap to prepare between the HR phone screen and the first technical interview. I was doing well on the technical parts of the interview, but the hiring manager was noticeably checked out the entire time (he even took a phone call during the interview). I got the feeling he didn't review my resume before the interview and was annoyed I got past the initial phone screen since I hadn't coded professionally in years. The team member he had on the interview with him was much more interested and kept the interview going.

A week later, the HR person called back and said the hiring manager was concerned by how long it had been since I was a developer. That's what I expected would be the problem, so I changed strategies. I decided to get my foot in the door and work my way back up to the level I was at before I went to law school. That worked and I got a job that paid way less than my attorney salary and about 25% less than I was making as a developer at my last position (not accounting for inflation). I've enjoyed the job enough that I put "working my back up" on hold.

I don't know your situation and how big a pay cut you're willing to take, but that worked for me. Don't get discouraged, it's definitely possible. I'm "caught up" in my tech stack and feel comfortable enough to interview elsewhere, but I don't want to right now.