[beefalo]

Because they want people who will grow that they can promote because it's really expensive to hire SDE III+

[yibg]

I don't think internally promoted SED III+ are any cheaper than externally hired ones. If they were they'd soon go else where anyways.

[cwp]

It's really expensive to hire at that level of seniority - even if the salary is the same once they start, it also takes a lot of time and money to get them to that point.