I agree with you. But the "good local people" often care more about their team. What happens when they want to change jobs? Something should exist for them to find opportunities together.
The best way I have seen teams transition is for one to leave and find a place they enjoy working at then work to recruit others over to join them.
Stripe is one company that got a lot of press in 2016 for hiring teams: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/recruiti....
Your model is definitely more common, but in no one does anything prevent teams to apply to companies and for companies to hire teams. From experience, I can tell you teams moving together happens more often than most think.