Two of the five IC's I manage are prolific open source contributors on a project mentioned here often. By any measure these two IC's are outstanding engineers and mentors, but also have zero interest in "growing" or having more responsibility.
But you can absolutely have folks who meet criteria 1 and 3 who are very skilled. Programming self selects for introverts, so it shouldn't be a surprise that not everyone wants to be a manager. And at some point in your career, you realize that taking on more responsibilities without the subsequent promotion results in more work and more stress for little benefit.
> There are plenty of important, fulfilling, well-compensated careers in which you don't need to grow, learn, and expand. Software development is not one of them.
This may have been true 5-10 years ago. But I think most devs now realize that constantly churning your tools in search of the newest shiny thing is a great way to add unnecessary work and stress to a project. It is entirely possible to get experience with 1-2 tech stacks and make a career out of it.
1. Are happy in their current title, company, responsibilities, etc.
2. Don't want to get a big raise
3. Just want to "do their job and go home"
I'm thinking of exactly two. There may be one or two I'm forgetting. Coincidentally they were also two of the least skilled developers I've worked with, I think in part because they had very little interest in growing professionally.
There are plenty of important, fulfilling, well-compensated careers in which you don't need to grow, learn, and expand. Software development is not one of them.