Your Future as PM or R&D

Shaun, this is thoughtful, thorough, and earns full credit. Here is a lesson from this, which your humble servant has learned along the way from "wiser old owls" than is he. It is easier to conduct research and suggest a plan. The hell on earth starts when you have to act on the plan, be the project and change manager, for all of the reasons, and more, that you raise in your discussion here. It is the project manager, PM, whose "neck is on the line" if the plan does not work out fully or at all. The researcher can always say, "Look, you ignored this part of my research." You, the R&D guru remain untainted. The poor project manager's professional rep is on the line always, and it sinks or swims with implementing the project. You reputation as a R&D expert remains intact in comparison to the poor PM shlep. As your humble servant here weighs his own career future, it is easy to see why professional research, not PM, appeals.