That is separate from the issue of whether or not the path is available at your company, or for you personally.

What I’m saying is they the pay tends to mostly reasonably represent value, in my experience. With a slight discount due to ICs often being bad negotiators (bit so are technical managers). As an individual, you have to consider what the job does for you, not just the other way around. If you want to increase your salary, absolutely you should be considering how you can change what you do to make a compelling argument that you are (or will) bringing more value.

Which isn’t to say that a great IC can’t bring a ton of value - it’s just that they are also rare.

What makes it harder is that typical IC ‘s lack both the visibility and experience to estimate value well (in the bottom line sense). So without infrastructure around it, you are at high risk of spending expensive time on the wrong things.

They're much more competitive to get into.