There was a recent entry here in HN where a developer discussed his/her regret at not having moved to the managerial path. I am trying to find it but it's taking me some time.
I'd be interested in seeing this post as well. As someone whose intellectual firepower is probably 50/50 on convergent/divergent thinking styles, it's pretty difficult for me to find a fit. Project Manager seems like the closest role I can find that can satisfy my skills and tastes.
It's a question of salary. If you are not an engineering superstar you will often hit a hard limit on your salary if you are an engineer. You can make more as a manager.
A manager has to have the right skills to manage a project and lead people. This is usually not something you find in engineers, so like teachers, it's not the expert knowledge (e.g. tech) but soft skills that count most for a manager. Therefore, a great manager doesn't have to know to code, at all. I haven't seen a single dev lead who got promoted from developer to manager who actually managed to manage the team/project reasonably.
I would like to be offered the choice. That is, most managers come from "the business" or something, and have never been an engineer, and don't want to have been an engineer. Given a choice, I'd pick the manager that was an engineer, but those folks are pretty rare.
Engineers who choose to "trade up" to management will always baffle me.