I don't think there's a shortage of good embedded people. A lot of the companies involved in this travesty could afford them, and have access to good candidates

I don't think there's a shortage of good embedded people. A lot of the companies involved in this travesty could afford them, and have access to good candidates, but have no reason to do it. Cheaper and commoditized hardware has lowered the barrier of entry for selling your own stuff, and the lack of regulation means that the consequences for screwing up in terms of security or privacy are basically zero. What you see happening isn't an accident. There are companies that do excellent IoT work, with excellent people. Many companies that don't could afford to excellent engineers, and have access to a terrific pool of candidates, but their management chooses another way and they're perfectly aware of what they're doing. (Sauce: am embedded developer, has been involved on and odd in the IoT scene since 2011 or so).