I wouldn't say that being the most morally bankrupt (actively working on the attack on journalists, critics and minorities) automatically qualifies someone as a "most prized mind", it's not like they are developing all of those zero days inhouse, they buy them for the most part.

It seems to me like you are overestimating the skills of people that just don't have any moral barrier while underestimating the skills of many proper security researchers. Companies like NSO are most of the time able to do what they do because they shake the right hands and get the right support (or the right people to look the other way), not because they have some special people that you can't find anywhere else.