There’s no compulsion, but people tend to nerd out in the specialty and lose their way. It’s hard to be the respected engineer in <pick a topic> and start over as a newb. Many of the folks in these fields get caught in a visa trap as well that makes the friction that much stronger.

One of my classmates in high school was a well regarded engineer that specialized in some sort of critical manufacturing process. Published papers, had patents, etc. Unfortunately, a new tech replaced that process, and he found himself laid off and kinda screwed.

He had a good network, crammed for a PMP and got into the project management racket and went back to school. Now he does cyber analysis stuff.