So here's a curious question that is perhaps incredibly naive and seemingly impolite, hence the throwaway, but I really don't know, which is why I'm asking.
Why must one be a senior engineer in tech before they can become a staff engineer? To me, this seems much more like a communication role. Moreover, the tech that is needed to know is at a high level. Is it really needed to know the technical finer details of systems when high level software architecture and communication seem to be 90% of the whole role?
Or put in a more blunt, albeit unrefined, way: why can't someone who specializes in communication become a staff engineer? I mean people like consultants. They get so much experience with communication and high level tech (some of them at least) that this seems to be what they'd be good at.