Agreed. My theory on this one was based on some large companies in my area that had engineers with 20+ years of experience making 150K, that were horrified to

Agreed. My theory on this one was based on some large companies in my area that had engineers with 20+ years of experience making 150K, that were horrified to learn that they were worth only 100K based on their skills. They became 'valuable' to their own company, but didn't have that value to anyone else due to specific skills that didn't necessarily transfer (think proprietary langs and frameworks). Long tenures can work both ways.