Employees are promoted based on their success until they are no longer competent

That explains a lot.

I tried to ask for some career path info from my leaders. They had nothing. There's nothing that gives me an idea of what skills are valued in which positions, or how they build off of each other. In fact, I feel I would do better at a higher level since I'm better act conceptual design and moving things through the company processes than I am at implementing the details. So I'm blocked from moving up since I'm mediocre at best in the current position.