idk about your "anti-labor" strawman here. promoting wholly unqualified internal people who have never managed anyone before and expecting them to take over a high performing team is not a good plan, nor is it "anti-labor". think about the people on the team who have to suffer as this internal candidate learns things that anyone with schooling or training in management would already know. at least send them to a course first or something. "historical context" and "product insight" don't count for anything in an engineering manager. they're not a product designer. that engineering manager should manage engineers, not plan the product. if they want to plan product, pick a C-level position where they can do that and hire a _manager_ externally.