Work at a security company. Everyone I know with "research" in their title is legitimately great.
That being said there are different types of security researchers. It seems like you were focused on vulnerability research/exploit development/offensive stuff. There's also malware analysis, intelligence, and detection research.
Just like exploit development, malware analysis requires reverse engineering skills. However, Intelligence analysts and people doing detection research often have incredibly deep and broad skillsets that don't involve knowing assembly or C, yet they are still doing amazing work. Some of them are also reverse engineers, but depending on the role its not the standard by which I would judge competence.
I've seen orgs that hire mostly bureaucrats, but if a person has genuine passion for security they can find a fun and challenging place to work.