Seconded. In my rating (OTM, which doesn't exist any longer), PO2 was about as high as you could go and still spend most of your time actually working on the gear. I definitely wasn't eager to sit at a desk and fill out PMS schedules. But we were often told, "Move up, not out." Given that those were the only choices offered, I eventually moved out.

In the Navy, curiosity can be a dangerous trait. On the one hand, I got a medal when I left one command, in part due to some of the reports I managed to coax out of the supply database. On the other hand, I later learned that the civilians at CACI were defintely less than pleased when I wrote them a letter pointing out how easily I had cracked the password security on that same supply database. You need to remember that you're in a world where the least common denominator rules, because sometimes the least common denominator is all that's left to guard against Very Bad Things.