It doesn't have to be a lot of money or customers. Even a small portion shows they can think about the bigger picture and ship something user/customers want to use.
You are right, a programmer who can make $80k+ building their own stuff is most likely not even looking for a job.
If it's a team effort, then why are you judging the developer candidate based on what other members of the team did or did not do well (acquire customers and make money)? It makes no sense to judge a developer based on criteria he's not directly responsible for.
Please don't generalize without evidence to back it up.
The first version of the Linux kernel wasn't written by a team, for example, and writing an OS is clearly impressive. Linux didn't ship, get customers, and make money.
You are right, a programmer who can make $80k+ building their own stuff is most likely not even looking for a job.