For sure, anything that encourages your best programmers to leave is Really Bad. My interpretation of the quoted sentences isn't "Having my best people leave is

For sure, anything that encourages your best programmers to leave is Really Bad. My interpretation of the quoted sentences isn't "Having my best people leave is the best problem I could have" but "Having people good enough that I can't make a meaningful performance scale that they aren't at the top of is the best problem I could have". Which isn't obviously wrong, though presumably it's not because of implementing Spolsky's scheme that he had such good people.