Are Corp Dev Careers dead-ends?

Hi guys, I've got 3 years of experience in private equity and corporate development at a start-up (fund raising) and I'm looking to go into a larger MNC that does corporate development. A recruiter signalled to me that corp dev careers tend to have a dead-end.

The reasons are:
a) There's not that many roles to go around particularly if you're interested in staying in financial services
b) Corp Dev/Strat roles don't lead to an obvious C-suite position - you can't really be CFO/COO/CEO - potentially Chief Strategy Officer but thats still an upcoming role and isn't commonplace.

I live in Singapore and wonder if that distorts the norm but I wondered if what other corporate development/strategy professionals thought about this? If you are a senior person doing corp dev/strat for a bank/large company, what was your path to getting to your role right now? What challenges to did you encounter? And do you think there is senior progression in your role or see a chance of getting capped out?