As a manager and software engineer,

Seniority is also implicitly more about _independence_ than _capability_. This is something Junior engineers are often confused about.

Its easier to hire, or let a senior work at home, because generally, they have a much stronger track record of "not becoming blocked" and "not needing someone to prioritize tasks" etc.

In short, its less about "forcing" preferences, and more about managements have seen this person execute with less oversite. Which is almost definitionally seniority.

A lot of you will respond to this "I don't need oversite to get things done" and a lot of you will be wrong. Because a lot of engineers need oversite to get _the right things_ done.