> If you're paying an engineer $100k to add 150k worth of value to your product, the true value of their work is $300k

If you pay engineers $300K for every $150K in value they add to your product, your cost will exceed value and will accelerate as you add more engineers. It's therefore eminently clear that there is no meaningful sense in which the true value of an engineer's work adding $150K to your product value is $300K. (It's $150K less the necessary support costs that allowing them to work imposes on the company.)