Sure, it sounds that way, if we assume that negotiating skill and job performance are tightly correlated. But why should we assume that?
But, if we can assume that the "rare talent" is anything other than straight out of college, they will have discovered that they are a rare talent, be aware of it themselves, and barring some sort of crippling neurosis, want to cash in on it. They might not even be skilled at negotiating... they'll just be aware that they have leverage.
We might even phrase the problem that way... that it's not so important that they have "negotiating skill", as it is that they have "leverage awareness".
But that said, not every company is trying to hire the best people. As you note, they're expensive.
Once an HR culture develops, anything sane or intelligent probably goes out the window.
I guarantee when Google hires someone like Ken Thompson, they do not get the normal Google hiring experience.
That said, the author of Homebrew would be the top authority in the field of OSX package management yeah? I mean, Apple hasn't even bothered to create a competitor and yet every tech bro at Google using a MBP is going to need to install and use it..