Interesting discussion! I’m sorry I missed the Masterclass.
Here’s my opinion on how testers can shape a bright and interesting future in the field:
What we need to realise and be able to vocalize is that there’s a whole spectrum of testers.
The dichotomy of manual and automation isn’t helpful at all.
Take the most code minded person you know. Someone that doesn’t even know there’s another medium to interact with the code other than his or her unit checks. (this person doesn’t necessarily exist)
This person is one end of the spectrum. On the other end is a business specialist who has no idea about the inner workings of the software, but knows what it should do and has dreams of what it should become.
The distance in mindset and focus between those two people is huge. But they are both extremely valuable to a team.
Additionally, the distance between those two leaves room for an incredible variety of testers. Testers that know different businesses, testers that can interact with REST services, testers that inspire & coach their co-workers,… and any combination of useful skills.
There’s testers that aren’t necessarily called testers, except that they are.
Development work has many different flavours of workers. Back-end, Front-end, UX, Data, architect,…
There’s opportunities for testers in each of these systems to serve as a counterpart. (Ashby’s law of requisite variety comes to mind)
We need to be able to vocalise how we, in our own personal flavour, can add value.
To effectively do that, you need credibility, passion, influencing skills,…
I haven’t figured out exactly how to do this, but I do know that I’ll have to learn to do it myself. 
Hopefully, we can change the perception of testing little by little.
I’m Beren and I’m somewhere on the Testing spectrum.
I’m confident that I can add value to any software project and so should you. 