> Hiring managers really prefer to retain their people and not have to rehire

In my experience, the only time a hiring manager has had the authority to overcome HR mandated maximum percentage wages was when my manager was a director/CTO and I was a strategic employee. That’s what causes “salary compression and inversion.”

Line level managers who most junior developers report to are completely useless when it comes to almost anything except for advice about dealing with the politics of the organization and reaching across teams.

You may sincerely want to retain talent but (the royal ) you probably don’t control budget. If you are working in a large tech organization, the promotion process still goes through a committee and is out of your control. Even when you do get promoted, you’re probably going to be making less than a new hire coming in at your same level.

Getting back to the uselessness of line level managers, when I was interviewing to be a “strategic hire” for two companies between 2016-2020 before I got into consulting, one of my conditions was that I would report directly to the person who had signing authority for budgets and/or major decisions so I wouldn’t have to deal with powerless line level management.