If you can’t prove your contributions are worthwhile, you’re not going to get recognition. People putting out fires get recognition because they are solving visible and urgent problems. If your work reduces the chances of those fires, it should be measurable otherwise what is the point? Do you honestly believe someone who has spent a year “improving processes” but cannot measure the impact of that year of work deserves glowing praise?

And it’s not that managers don’t understand developers and the work they do. It’s that a lot of developers don’t engage at all with what a business actually does. They are working at IKEA while trying to convince management to use the nice dovetail joints instead of that garbage dowel based assembly. Not only do dovetails look better, they are substantially stronger! All very true statements from a craftsman woodworker. But a complete failure to understand the business and how and why it operates as it does and the value they are expected to provide within it.