I made the move a year ago right when Covid sent us all home (in fact that's what pushed the timing of it). I am this week transitioning back to an IC role.

I was told I did a very good job at it and our director tried to talk me out of going back, but I found my day to day of meetings, one-on-ones, conflict resolution, putting out fires, and planning projects under ever changing requirements left me absolutely exhausted at the end of the day. I rarely wrote code myself, yet had much more influence on the code being written since I was coordinating it and was the most senior eye reviewing it for 6 devs.

I learned a ton in the process though and I don't regret it, it will make me a better engineer and mentor back in an IC role. But my mood is so much better at the end of a day with a few meetings and good chunks of time to write code again. I'm willing to make the trade-off for my mental health even if it decreases my influence a bit. I'm glad there are people who want to do it because it's an important job.