[Desafinado]

You do need to delineate between the end goals of promotion and job security, though.

If your only goal is to make money and be promoted then yes, politics are necessary. But that developer who is doing all of the work on the bottom rung and who is required for the team to operate, they often have power and job security. They're kept where they are, and are secure, because of their skills.

That might not be true of a Meta who has billions of dollars to throw at devs. But for companies with a hard time recruiting being good means power.

The old adage goes that there are two people with power in the software industry: those signing the cheques and those writing the code.