A lot of companies don't want or need strong engineers, even ones that claim they do. They want cheap worker bees to do the Jira tickets without question.
A less dire way to express this is that companies have needs for devs at different levels of experience. Very experienced people are going to be bored and feel unchallenged doing work that's not appropriate for their level.
In larger companies, hiring decisions is made by managers with a career agenda and projects in mind.
People who will bring new ideas, rock the boat, offer to do the same task but in an easier way... Don't make good peons for these managers.
That's why Microsoft loves contractors. Contractors will do what they're told and have very little leverage. Empire-building managers there can easily control their contractor work force even if speed and sometimes quality is sacrificed.