It’s important to realize that some “non-ambitious” people may be well paid professionals who love their work, but don’t want to step up to management because then they would just be…managing. Managing is what? Hiring. Firing. Holding staff meetings. Monitoring your staff’s work to make sure everything is on track. Probably the further up the ladder you go, the more management in various fields, departments, and companies, is the same.
Not every programmer wants to become the CIO, nor does every engineer want to become the VP of Engineering. And it’s probably best that way.