I think that can simultaneously be possibly true (that the people who make serious money stuck around at one company), yet still usually be the wrong or bad mov

I think that can simultaneously be possibly true (that the people who make serious money stuck around at one company), yet still usually be the wrong or bad move for most people to make. I stuck around for six years at my previous job, and my boss was there for 13 years. I dealt with a lot of bullshit from the corporate higher ups for four of those years, frozen salaries, no promotions in the department, company 401k match removed, worse health benefits, not replacing coworkers after they left so I (and my boss too) kept having more responsibilities piled up, etc. And I was very reliable at my job (read: let myself be taken advantage of). I even got call outs in town halls for some things I helped accomplish, and when I left I'd be referred to as one of the few phone systems SME in the company. I finally got sick of the stagnation and left for a different industry and a hefty raise in 2021. My boss stayed. And then two weeks ago I heard they shut down the department and let everyone still there go (we were a skeleton crew in engineering when I left, but we supported 90 other employees). If I had stayed there, I would have still been making barely more than I was making when I left, and would have been let go with the rest of the department. While there are undoubtedly people like the ones you are describing out there, there are probably far more people that get into situations like mine, especially when the company starts to stagnate.