> Now, can't pay someone market rate because that would be going out of band. While at the same time, people who come in as "headline" hires from external are given not nearly such scrutiny and instead get $Ms and hiring bonuses and directorships.

This seems like a common, growing problem in BigTech: It's often easier to interview and get L+1 at another company than it is to get promoted from L to L+1. Hell, it's probably easier to quit and immediately re-interview for L+1 at your own company than to go through the arduous promotion grind. When you go for promotion, you generally have to have some chain of evidence, peer reviews, performance history, etc. to show you should be at L+1, whereas when you interview at that L+1 role, you merely need to talk your way through a few interviewers and bedazzle them sufficiently. I mean, the bar is already high for the interviews, don't get me wrong, but believe it or not, it appears to be even higher for promotion.