If you actively go out of your way to hire people from company X on a priority bases rather than skills (and no, trade secrets are not "skills"), then you're poaching and it is not same as paying market rate.

I think it’s a bit disingenuous to frame this as a situation no different than “paying market rate”.

Whether you like this or not, the practice of hiring employees specifically to work on the same thing elsewhere or to drain a company of its talent - is called poaching.

It’s often legal, but can be controversial especially when it’s a behemoth raiding smaller shops.

You seem to be offended by the word itself, but it’s just a useful descriptor to differentiate between different types of hiring scenarios.

I’ve been poached before, and it worked out great for me.