in our case that specific person now owns all the aspects of a huge platform (~400 people), right next after the VP of our org (and being an engineer on a pet project of that VP is what resulted in such a career jump). The platform of course is just nowhere to be of any success - it is an unmanageable pile of modern sounding technologies (based on k8s of course; and you name any buzzword - we have it) done in our very "enterprisey" way - yet "we're making progress".

I actually was a principal at one mid-size a decade ago. I went there as an IC and was very clear about that, and they gave me the high level just to bring me in. Nevertheless the principal related crap - powerpointing/etc. - was creeping in, and after the first yearly vest i left, despite all the raises in the counter to keep me, for a normal senior engineer position at another place. 2 years later they tried to bring me back as a chief architect to build a new platform, and i almost went there as the project sounded great, just in the last moment right before accepting the offer i really remembered why i left - the technical work will be overwhelmed by the "organizational" work.