[x2f10]

Was there a job offer / spot bonus?

[codingdave]

Yep. I got a job offer. It was nowhere near competitive with other opportunities, though, so the talks didn't go far.

[serpix]

This checks out. Banks have no problem spending millions on poor solutions but zero interest in rewarding optimisations.

[shyn3]

That's because you are a threat to the manager if you implement something like this without approval.