Gunner You are right. I have to say in my own career I have been on both sides of the desk and, if you are honest with yourself, it is totally frustrating and pointless.
You cannot manage people if you do not have an insight into what they face every day. You can only get that insight by actually having done the type of work, or similar work, yourself.
Sure, you can administer people, but you cannot be an effective leader unless you can command respect. An MBA is useful, but it is no substitute for hands on expereince.
I found out the hard way once, "leading" a 70 strong group of IT people - and me with zero formal or informal IT expereince. I got out after 18 months of pure hell.