lol all of this advice is tailored towards crazy people at crazy companies. in a sane work environment it works quite logically -

1. You have an employee who has been with the company for years and thus has lots of hard won experience and knowledge about the particulars of your company

2. They have already been groomed for and shown potential to perform well in a lead role

3. You promote them to lead and pay them what they are worth, knowing that paying market wage is better than taking a gamble on a new hire and paying them market wage anyways.

its worrying that this kind of weird political shit always ends up highly voted in comment threads, because it colors your expectations. work for good, trustworthy, competent people, forget about this meta scheming bullshit and focus on doing your job well.