Why do you want to be a sector-lead analyst?

For those who aspire to be a sector-lead on the sell-side, I'm curious to learn how you think about your career. Most people on the sell-side try to pivot to the buy-side or go corporate. Why do you want to stay? What makes you think that being a sector-lead on the sell-side is the best path forward for you? 

The best arguments I've heard are that being a sell-sider doesn't require you to be right in your stock picking, it only requires you to excel at volume (whether that is marketing, corporate access, thought provoking notes, etc.). If you can find your niche as a lead analyst, the job becomes a high six-figure/low-seven figure annuity that you can ride into retirement, without the stress and volatility that comes with the buy-side. 

On the flip side, it seems like most leave because equity research is one of the worst pay per-hour jobs on wall street. Mid-level pay massively lags other groups (ER VPs clear around $250-$400k whereas in banking and S&T it is closer to $500k+) and even at the senior level, you're grinding very hard for comp that caps out somewhere between $1-$2M per year (whereas in banking and S&T, if you're a stud, you can earn multiples of this - same goes for the buy-side). 

So for those who aspire to be a sector-lead, what motivates you? Would love to hear your thoughts.