If you're a tech company, looking to grow by building new products or significantly expanding existing ones, then your developers are assets and you treasure them.

If you're looking to grow in other ways (e.g. by acquisition) then you can put all your products in maintenance mode, and your developers are a cost that you want to cut as much as possible.

Developers as a whole are not a commoditised resource, but certainly can be treated that way depending on the company and its business plan.