There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit.

Plenty of capable people never rise, and that is ordinary rather than scandalous, since promotion depends on timing, notice and luck as much as on quality. The reverse holds less neatly. Somebody who has got up there has usually got something, even if it is not the thing you value, and dismissing them as pure fortune tends to make you miss what it actually was.

If someone above you seems undeserving, work out what they are genuinely good at, since it is rarely nothing. And if your own merit has gone unrewarded, take it as a statement about visibility and timing rather than about your work.