> People usually like to believe that they're at least better than average and bring the same level of contributions to the team. This is most definitely not the case, and an engineering manager, VP, sales manager who simply appears to talk to people all day long may actually have important contributions such as overseeing key projects, talking to customers etc. which may be the thing that the company needs to lock that large sale or prevent customer attrition, or whatever the case may be.

As an engineer I have constantly heard throughout my career complaints that "We make the product, without us the sales wouldn't have a job, so we deserve better compensation"

To which I have always replied - speaking as an engineer, I struggle to sell a product, and I have seen multiple products that were technically superior to their competitors fail (Beta vs VHS!) - sales and management are vastly more important than engineering.