@sgf Part of it's just practical. You price yourself (either financially or skill level at stuff like architecture etc) of the 'fun' dev jobs. Staff Engineer jobs exist but they tend to be at big corps; using someone like me as a dev is EXPENSIVE when I add more value *not* writing code.
@sgf Example this last go-around I applied for DOZENS of 'senior dev' jobs but the constant refrain was I was 'too experienced'...no idea if the lead thought I would be unmanageable / they though I was so old I'd croak, it never gets that far.