Not sure that the effects you theorize are true, but they're definitely possible, in the dynamic ways these shifting strategies affect real employment/resource

Not sure that the effects you theorize are true, but they're definitely possible, in the dynamic ways these shifting strategies affect real employment/resource decisions... as opposed to the simplistic "salary fixing" [sic] spin from some of the coverage. To an extent, existing employees with stock-based compensation, and also seeking "purpose/control/mastery" satisfaction at work, share their employers'/stockholders' interests in quelling rampant mercenary turnover and salary-over-all bidding wars. Another second-order beneficiary of any attempted employment cartelization could have been the startup ecosystem. As a founder or very-early employee, you "eat what you kill" rather than any industry-average salary. And, the pool of willing founders could have been expanded by missing/lower recruiting from the giants.