If there was a piece of advice that I could give to my younger self, it would be to understand that "being valuable" and "being valued" are two totally different (and often mutually exclusive) things.

I've never seen a workplace that isn't super hierarchical: some just hide it better than others.

If you ask around any workplace who the MVPs are, they'll point to the weird kid with the blue hair and tattoos that's been stuck in the same position for years. They'll be the super-knowledgeable glue people who create little bespoke solutions that nobody else would have even imagined. They'll spot the critical flaw or opportunity that might net the company a fortune, but their career trajectory is glacial at best.

If you ask around any workplace who the "high potentials" are, it's the stiff in the suit who seems to be entirely devoid of actual personality, says yes to everything but commits to nothing, and you'd honestly be hard pressed to say what they even do.

Working hard or even working well isn't what gets rewarded, just your conformity with the set of attributes which are important or familiar to the decision-maker personally.

There's a reason why the American Psycho resonates the way that it does, even after so many years: it's disappointingly rare to find a decision-maker who would meet Patrick Bateman at a corporate lunch and not say, "That's exactly the kind of person we're after!"

If you don't feel comfortable with spending more effort on skincare than value delivery, then you need to manage your energy levels well enough to put some focus into identifying the rare decision-makers who would pick the guy with the blue hair instead.