In theory, we aligned the ladders in a manner that Principal sits parallel to Directors in the management track. I'm expected to impact org-wide culture, policy, technology direction, strategy, etc... but so rarely am I allowed into the rooms where decisions are being made, let alone discussed. I don't know (at all) what is being discussed, and by the time I find out about it things are set in stone.
I do what I can with mentoring and team culture, and lead by example for code-related things, but that is all very zoomed in and tactical. We've been told explicitly that we're holding off on having people write technical strategy/vision until we have organization-wide direction from those in upper Leadership. That has been the promise for a long time, but for one reason or another keeps failing to materialize.
At this point, upper Leadership won't even meet with someone of my rank/position, as they only respect others with VP to C-level titles to work with.
This is the type of reality I fear encountering at other organizations. I worry that despite the allure of Principal title, the reality is that too often such things happen and that when it comes down to it, VPs and C-levels only respect similar, and want Principals or Distinguished Engineers simply as "advanced fixers" for problems in a short time.