[deathanatos]

> Maintenance could be done by juniors

Sorry, but no. Maintenance requires understanding the code, which requires reading the code. Experienced¹ eng are far more likely to be able to grind through code they didn't write, as they've read more code over the course of their career.

¹actually experienced, i.e., has actually gained knowledge. Not just "has been in the industry for more years" which seems to be frighteningly common.

[qwemaze]

That's true from eng perspective, yes, but try explaining it to an average manager who has a few seniors and a dozen mids/juns for the same cost as seniors.

He'll tell you magical "knowledge transfer" and won't think twice about making a raise for seniors and will proceed on hiring people to "transfer" the knowledge to.