> 9. Managers usually can never be a normal employee again. People subconsciously fear they cannot control authority, and will prefer to hire someone easier to "handle".
This is usually not the case at a FAANG, for whatever it's worth. Multiple people I know have voluntarily moved back to IC from management positions. It's not that unusual for senior devs to try managing and figure out that they don't like it (whether or not they're good at it) and then move back into being a highly regarded IC.