Recruiters usually aren't good at programming. If they were - in most cases - they wouldn't be recruiting, but writing code... So their "identification of good programmers" is somehow limited...
There are places where good technical recruiters earn substantially more than programmers - if they get 10% year salary (which I understand is not the highest number you might see), they only need ~1 successful placement a month to make reach parity.
Not only that but they may just enjoy recruiting more than they enjoy (or don't enjoy) programing.
The two recruiters I know basically did it has a mid life career switch.