I mean Microsoft is pretty damn hierarchical, with monstrously thick layers of middle management, and they've been going strong for decades. And by all accounts, Netflix and Amazon are stressful to work for, at least partially because these employees are having to manage themselves in addition to performing their individual work.

I actually agree with most of your points, but if you think of the market as an ecosystem and companies as lifeforms, you'll find many species employing completely different (successful) growth strategies.

I've been on teams that were undermanaged, I've been on teams that were over-managed, organizations with incredibly effective management, and organizations where management was comprised of politicians and fools who actively harmed the effectiveness of the teams they were supposed to lead.

It's relatively easy to hire great ICs. You ask them some questions to make sure their resume isn't bullshit, try to gage their enthusiasm, attitude, and friendliness, then pay them what they want.

It's really, really hard to hire great managers, because even if they've succeeded in past positions, it has little bearing on whether they'll succeed in this particular position, working with these particular people. And it's even harder to build an organizational culture whereby the right people get promoted internally to management. Almost every company screws this up, and the big companies that get this less-wrong are much less stressful to work for and more effective than their peers.