I’ve done both and am not sure which I’m better at. I can 100% say that I found more pure joy in programming, but probably have had a much larger positive impact on the company in a leadership role.
The ultimate control against the pressure is “no, I don’t want a management role” or “I don’t want a management role higher than team lead” or whatever. No one will fire a good engineer because they don’t want to go into management.
Part of the pressure is on pay; part is on control; part is on boredom/frustration with doing the same thing, especially if you’re doing the same thing and think there are bozos higher up in the company making bad calls.
I’ve often said that once I have a totally secure retirement, that the ideal job from a happiness standpoint for me is a principal (or maybe even one step lower) software engineer role somewhere. I don’t want to just travel and certainly not just golf and watch TV.
I have some tangential questions for you and maybe others.
---
As a programmer, how can I avoid the pressure towards management?
What is that pressure and why do people succumb to the pressure?
How much is that pressure external and how much is internal?
What form does the pressure take? What advice can help withstand the pressure?
---
I work in a medium sized silicon valley tech company.