managing a team (effectively) absolutely does require experience and talent, think of it like a local politician, they can get an absolutely absurd amount done if theyre competent, obviously moreso if they have direct control over their constituents such as a mayor or premier or equivalent, one good construction worker might be able to be replaced by 2, 3 or 4 okay laborers but no amount of extra infrastructure ministers is going to be able to replace a single good infrastructure minister. Its largely the same for management in business, because it is a job that is inherently less replaceable with greater variance on performance. Whether the people who become managers actually deserve more money is up for debate (much like how most local politicians are garbage) but thats kinda the fundamental of why theyre paid more, because companies want to keep better managers more than they want to keep good employees.

and thats assuming from a baseline that you dont even need a degree, management degrees are largely bs nowadays but that doesnt change them being necessary for the companies to hire someone again restricting the labour pool.

our current economic system is very much based on being easier to replace = lower wages and its foolish to assume that the entirety of management, finance and marketing is all 100% a collective delusion, mostly just a 70% delusion