The thing is, both things can be true. They're just true for different people. Those high salaries won't generally motivate an "in it for the tech", startup-f

The thing is, both things can be true. They're just true for different people. Those high salaries won't generally motivate an "in it for the tech", startup-friendly developer of the type that commonly frequents HN... but a bank with a legacy mainframe system probably doesn't want to hire that person, and they don't need to. The technology isn't the core of their business. On the other hand, there are many highly competent developers out there who view their job as a means to an end, a way to support their family/life/hobbies/etc. To these people, learning a highly specialized legacy skill and making lots of money is exactly the right motivator. As an example, I present my father. He has been writing data management software for hospitals for decades, and does all his work on midrange IBM AS/400 ("System i") systems. He writes all his code in IBM RPG--"report program generator" code. In recent years he's learned Java, C and Unix systems to keep himself fresh, but he's never found the need to actually use any of those skills, or a job using these that would treat him as well as his legacy work.