There are relatively few 'rockstars' that perform at that level in every position throughout their whole career. I have seen people struggle at a company because they do not seem to fit into the culture/dev processes/hierarchy that are excellent performers at another company when everything gels for them. And also visa versa.

I think half of your performance is not your technical ability but the environment you are in and how it suites you. Some like a free wheeling, high pressure small company feel. Others prefer a structured large company where they have a well defined set of tasks. Some developer take a few years to figure out which is best for them.

I’ve seen many mediocre, stagnant devs become rockstars. They switched fields to something they enjoyed more and was better suited to them.

Having a background in programming is helpful in lots of non-programming career tracks.