And that's why Google made "Distinguished Engineer" and "Google Fellow" position -- so that other engineers would not think it is a dead end job, and would not search for different positions.
This does not mean is easy for someone to get promoted to those positions -- but at least there is no "hard ceiling" for people who just like to write code.
True as ever... People think programming is a white collar job but it's a high paying blue collar job with an office or a desk.