but I work in the real estate industry and that means my opinions don't matter to the company or the industry - I will never make as much as someone on the real estate side of the business and my opinions will never sway the direction of the company

That's because you work for shitty company that doesn't see the value in leveraging IT to increase revenue.

I was a sysadmin for 12 years and was promoted to IT Director last year. IT Director was a newly created position in our company because upper management realized we are not leveraging IT to improve sales. For instance giving our customers a portal to log in and see any and all docs related to a commissioned project: work orders, invoices, drawings, contracts, manuals, etc (we are a manufacturing company).

I had to interview for the position against outsiders with management experience. I had no management experience. They decided it would be easier to train me to be a manager than it would be to hire a manager and train them in IT. And they were right.