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Game companies need developers that extract as much performance of the machine as possible.

Other companies need developers that make applications not anyone can push updates to. Those are also good developers.

There is no single metric for "good" in a field as vast as programming.

I doubt it. Game companies need guys willing to sign their life away, months at a time. I worked in EDA, now storage. TONS of very talented people.

I agree, but the core reason for this has nothing to do with either of the points you mention. There are few other sub-cultures that come anywhere close to the (avg.) level of passion and narrow focus than game dev. And you absolutely need it, because it is very complex and usually badly paid.