Bureaucracy rules.
If almost nobody is going to be getting anywhere anyway, why not?
In a very high technology field, regardless of whether it has anything to do with computers or not, sometimes what is needed is a team of individual high-performers.
Where each member could have the same high degree of expertise in the same relevant area, or at the other end of the spectrum, unique expertise in the variety of complementary domains the project requires.
Fundamentally any one of these productive individuals could do an outstanding job (of some kind) on their own, since that's the entrance criterion.
It's not supposed to go downhill just because you have a project that needs more engineers than one.
Any one of these operators who are not already a "rock star" is just because they do not have a manager promoting them & their talents properly.
The bandleader's got to be in the band with enough talent to be respected by all the band members, and performing right there beside them when it counts most. Especially if they're all rock stars, somebody has to herd cats.
The manager needs open-ended compensation with no upside limitation, other than it can not exceed the income of a single band member, completely dependent on how well the manager promotes those under his wing and how lucrative the gigs are he gets for the band.
Otherwise no rock stars for you.
You know, how somebody really can be 10X at any time, but only if the situation is right in many ways beyond that one individual?
A good manager can bring more than that multiple to the bottom line if they concentrate on promoting & increasing the actual performers' earnings first, rather than themselves.