A plight much greater than not being promoted is the plight of being promoted and not given the necessary Authority and Powers required to be able to perform one's role in that elevated position. Go ask a person caught-up in that unfortunate reality.
A lot of imagination drives people beliefs about the level of power and authority that lie in the higher positions they vie for. The unfortunate reality is that only if they were to raise their heads and see upwards, in most corporate cases they would find people in their aspired leadership roles, actually imprisoned in higher cages shone of power and authority required to perform their duties. Some promotions are only back-fills to open positions to make the corporate structural windows look filled.
Know the reality before you become sad.