They were always open to me. I never applied. Over 40 years managers morphed from experienced staff who had worked their way up, to people who were professional managers with little to no actual experience in the industry. My interest was in the work in the industry, not EEOC rules, HR rules, and at the end of my career juggling the needs of the company with covid requirements. And while I never actually knew what the pay was, in California as of January 1, salary ranges must be posted in job ads, and those salary ranges are pretty pathetic.
I was a team player. I could hit home runs and make contributions from my position, but I never wanted to be the team manager.