I wonder if there's some tacit understanding between HR/recruiting/biz at tech companies that paying for retention will lead to engineering comp running wild ac

I wonder if there's some tacit understanding between HR/recruiting/biz at tech companies that paying for retention will lead to engineering comp running wild across the board and make all of these businesses more expensive to run. Feel free to teach me a lesson, but I feel this could be possible because: - If people were paid to stay, then the supply of engineers in recruiting pipelines would decrease. - If top performers were paid to stay, then the mere existence of a "counter-offer" mechanism would open up the door for bidding wars, where each bid is actually positive indicator for the quality of the talent. Today bidding wars largely only exist for somebody with multiple new offers, where neither company actually has a great measure of the talent. - Retention pay is likely a compounding expense for the employer. Finance departments hates compounding liabilities. Altogether would it make the labor market more efficient? Probably. Would it make businesses less profitable? Probably.