I don't think it is possible to generalise - different jobs or careers have different demands.
My experience is that networking and building relationships with colleagues and clients is crucial to advancement - unless you are lucky enough to be brilliant and indispensable at your job, in which case you can demand a lot more leeway.
Clients and managers pick people for projects or tasks whom they like to work with - people with whom they have a good working and personal relationship - they confide in you and that builds trust, which makes for a stronger team or client relationship. It's difficult to do if you keep saying you are regularly unavailable for whatever reason - they will find someone else.
If you can show you either bring in business that increased profits or contributed in a measurable way to increased profits, you can ask for promotions and some of those additional profits will come to you in the form of a bonus or pay rises. If people can do this and also go home earlier than colleagues to look after children or elderly parents - they deserve the promotion / pay rise / bonus IMO.