Why would you get paid shit wages when you can be a VP of telling people what to do?
Call it the "jock-ification" of the tech world. It was bad enough when they were in high school, now they've infiltrated the tech world.
The "jock/nerd dichotomy" is a dumb harmful stereotype used by lazy hollywood and television writers. Many of the smartest people I've ever known were also the most athletic. There is NO inverse relationship between physical fitness and intelligence. If anything, there is a positive correlation between the two, as being healthy and well nourished makes you more likely to realize both your physical and intellectual potential.
Real life is not a 1980s teen comedy movie, no matter how comforting out of shape engineers may find the notion.
Anything else is mindless conspiracy theories. There is no secret cabal pushing culture to the masses.
It's so bizarre to observe normal humans and businesses (and how organizations completely fail at any meaningful scale), and then to turn around and assume there is a hyper-intelligent, hyper-powerful secret society running things.
Instead of blaming Satan, now we have boogeymen from conspiracy theories to fulfill his role.
The high-school-like dichotomy has more to do with affect. Everyone is athletic, but you can definitely tell the boisterous business bros from the soft-spoken engineers.
Many of the prettiest/handsomest people I've met were the dumbest. The more likely they are to seek popularity (think "taste-makers") as a source of income, the less likely they are to have any sort of intellectual curiosity.
I'm not sure we're working in the same industry / living in the same world.