I mean, it's not precisely lower valued. It's valued low enough by the in-house SWEs, that they aren't going to do a good enough job to prevent embarrassing hea

I mean, it's not precisely lower valued. It's valued low enough by the in-house SWEs, that they aren't going to do a good enough job to prevent embarrassing headlines.[1] Therefore, the outsourcing company isn't going to charge much less.[2] At the same time, they provide insulation from responsibility if something does go wrong. So they can pay much less and capture the difference. The cultural gap[3] prevents their employees from working directly for companies like their clients so competition doesn't equalize wages. [1]This is a reference to particular events of which I'm aware. [2]e.g. an hourly rate equating to $250K/year, maybe more. [3]I mean nerd culture, not "real" culture.