Software development by itself is not a technical profession that gives the best results from this point of view. Having said this, I’m pretty sure that strong and passion-driven skills in a few fields can make a difference: embedded electronics software better than web, high quality and functional safety oriented better than plain software, ML specialist (but with real experience in challenging embedded applications) better than generic algorithms, and so on. Again: the one professional that specialises in designing the architecture and requisites of a functional safety concerned piece of software (think of an automotive code under ISO26262 norm) will easily monetise his skill much more than the ten software developers that realise the same code.