I know a >40x developer. We started trying to get load of that single person, because they were heavily overload, were a single point of failure, and were doing so much that it was impossible for other people to grow new responsibilities.
We replaced part of that person with 2 teams of 20 people doing a small part of the work that this person was doing before. This person is still part of the two teams, in an advisory role, although they started as team leaders, but part of their job was now to grow new leaders that would replace them.
This person is still a >40x developer, still overworked, still doing way too much. Now we are trying to replace another of their responsibilities, with another 20 person team.
I'm pretty sure that once we do that, this developer will still be a >40x developer, just doing other things, that at some point, we'll need to replace.
FWIW, this person just does too much, because all that much must be done, and nobody does it, so they just take on it and do it, really well, and really fast. Most of this stuff doesn't even interest this person. There are some things that interest them, and that's what they want to focus and work on, but they still do all this other stuff.
So "replacing" them is actually something they want, but it takes time to recognize these problems, figure out how to solve them, grow people that can do the job, etc.
When I look at these two teams, and all the work they do, the only thing I can think of is wow, we didn't even know this 40x dev was doing to much. The dev didn't have time to complain, or write reports, or anything, because they were to busy doing all the stuff and putting out all the fires. It was only when they started saying that they would like to focus on this or that, and if we could find someone to take on this or that load, that we realized that no single person could take on these loads.
We replaced part of that person with 2 teams of 20 people doing a small part of the work that this person was doing before. This person is still part of the two teams, in an advisory role, although they started as team leaders, but part of their job was now to grow new leaders that would replace them.
This person is still a >40x developer, still overworked, still doing way too much. Now we are trying to replace another of their responsibilities, with another 20 person team.
I'm pretty sure that once we do that, this developer will still be a >40x developer, just doing other things, that at some point, we'll need to replace.
FWIW, this person just does too much, because all that much must be done, and nobody does it, so they just take on it and do it, really well, and really fast. Most of this stuff doesn't even interest this person. There are some things that interest them, and that's what they want to focus and work on, but they still do all this other stuff.
So "replacing" them is actually something they want, but it takes time to recognize these problems, figure out how to solve them, grow people that can do the job, etc.
When I look at these two teams, and all the work they do, the only thing I can think of is wow, we didn't even know this 40x dev was doing to much. The dev didn't have time to complain, or write reports, or anything, because they were to busy doing all the stuff and putting out all the fires. It was only when they started saying that they would like to focus on this or that, and if we could find someone to take on this or that load, that we realized that no single person could take on these loads.