jeffery pfeffer talks about the triad of performance, credentials, and relationships in one of his books[1] and it extends the metaphor, where a lot of independent consultants are super high performers, but may lack an advanced credential that opens the door for most management roles, or don't have the relationships in their business to close deals so they become subcontractors to people with those relationship management skills.

every industry, company, or field weights these differently. most institutions rank actual individual performance very low relative to credentials and relationships, where something like sales would be all performance and relationships and they don't care what your other bona fides are. if you didn't go to an ivy school, a master's is usually needed to get hired as an exec, but not to be a trouble shooter, etc..

know what your career path values and adapt and invest in the triad accordingly. people who gripe about certifications and book-larnin' are usually indexed on the performance and relationship fields where they can leverage their outlier skills there, whereas being still pretty average with a higher credential score creates opportunity and career momentum. may the odds ever be in your favour.

[1] Pfeffer's "Power" https://www.amazon.com/Power-Some-People-Have-Others/dp/0061...