Need to pay someone more in order to hire them? New job title - "Staff Software Engineer, Algorithm Design". Wow I just created a new pay band that's no longer bound by whatever was set for "Staff Software Engineer".
Is this why companies have such weird job titles these day?
That incentive was already there for things like H1B. Or unrelated reasons, like hiring/retention.
Be aware that the titles people actually use day to day may not match their official HR titles. Not that I really use business cards any longer but I have basically never used the official title that's in the computer system. (Obviously, you shouldn't just make yourself a VP or whatever but I've always had a lot of latitude to change the title I use within reason.)