This assumes they make more money for the sake of their position in the hierarchy rather than having valued skills at performing well at that level of the hiera

This assumes they make more money for the sake of their position in the hierarchy rather than having valued skills at performing well at that level of the hierarchy. Believe it or not, most people don’t do well in mgmt positions. To find someone that can perform that job can be harder than finding a good “individual contributor”. I’ve seen plenty of good technical people wash out of even basic supervisory/team lead positions. So I think there is a scarcity element at work.