> But because they, especially QA & ops, tend to be viewed as lower on the hierarchy they often have lesser talent filling the ranks.

Geez ever wondered why? It is partly due to the "monkey" work that's required. I feel the "ops" world needs a heavy reset (may sound like broken record again: eliminate toil, eliminate side-effects, chicken/egg problems, test? what test? etc..). Geez and I wonder why positions at "FANG" like places require software engineers to fill in the ops work - the engineers, the thinkers and the leaders at these companies understood pretty early on the importance of "engineering" applied to these "ops" and "qa" disciplines.