The few animators I have known personally said the hours were grueling, the pay was so so, and they all wanted to move up to "Technical Director" or "Lighting Director" as soon as possible. (And I think most of them did.) Though I'm not sure if they quit the industry entirely after that.
I suspect the comment came from someone who was confusing "people who work in animation" with "people who are Animators." I have known a great many Technical Directors who wanted to be Animators. I have known only one Animator who wanted to be a Technical Director, and he faced no significant obstacles in transitioning to become one.
Those are more logical progressions from a software engineer.
It would be shocking if there were a large number of animators vying to be technical directors.
There are many TDs who may want to be an animator, and some animators who want to be TDs. But they're the minority. Ones a heavily art based discipline, the other is heavily tech based. There's significantly more demand vs supply for TDs than animators. It just doesn't make logical sense that they'd know multiple animators trying to get into a TD role, because it's the easier role to get. It makes equally little sense for them to know multiple animators trying to become lighters.
The person I replied to is probably commiting the age old foible of describing all people working in animation as animators.
