Because at the end of the day "equal skills" doesn't exist. You can't just measure a developer's overall skill with a single power level number like in some ani

Because at the end of the day "equal skills" doesn't exist. You can't just measure a developer's overall skill with a single power level number like in some anime. Different people are good/bad at different things and two engineers at the same level/experience can contribute to the team in completely different ways. That's why compensation exists in bands, which is aimed to reflect that skill levels exist in bands (not all L4s are equal, etc).