I don't know much about Romania, is $25 really a top-tier rate?

From experience, when you talk about top programming talent, the rates between countries start to converge. So almost everyone at the top demands > $50 an hour regardless of the geographic location.

Of course working at that rate means that you not only have exceptional technical skills, but you can communicate well, have a business sense and actually care about the success of the project and the customer.

I still freelance part time on select projects but my hourly rate is rarely less than $50/hr and that's only because i do not take on large projects due to my day time work and business. I also stopped working with customers who differentiate on price alone.