I was of similar mindset until I worked with some. Not to say a 200k dev couldn’t do it, but especially at big tech or rapidly growing large scale startups, the price difference is worth it from experience alone.

Not only are the technical challenges different at large scale, the product and human challenges are different. The 750 principle is basically leading a 500+ engineer org’s technical vision and steering the ship. Not only is it crazy difficult to get 500 people align on a vision, but the mechanics of organizing and leading that large number of people are unique too.

Plus product wise a 750k engineer can save the company multiples of that just by advocating on what not to do, and avoid expensive mistakes.

I’ve learned more in 2 years at big tech than I have in 7 in local companies or smaller startups.