One element that I feel is quite important in the post you mentioned (Sam charging 1k per hour) is that Sam has actually shipped something, though I don't know

One element that I feel is quite important in the post you mentioned (Sam charging 1k per hour) is that Sam has actually shipped something, though I don't know how successful his app is. I'm guessing that a lot of devs don't have this experience (A - Z participation in shipping something.) Even a lot of small start-up devs are likely shielded from many of the headaches that go into doing something like this. The experience he has picked up is very valuable and could probably sell a lot of hours in client work.