I can't believe how many people claim to have years of experience but are completely unfamiliar with terms like "binary", "library", "compiler", and "filesystem".
How do you expect to convince the interviewer that your solution was correct without tests? How can you debug your code properly if you end up with a spaghetti mess instead of using a clean design?
They're parallel in theory and get paid the same, but if you look at the ratio of high-level managers to high level ICs, climbing the management ladder is clearly easier.