Ask HN: SDET / QA viewed as 2nd string Developers

I'd like feedback from both testers and developers (and managers) on this.

My experience has been that engineering (and sometimes testing) leadership view even SDET as a sub-class of development. Interviews with companies all ask the same code, design, and implementation questions—with the fact that testing roles ask additional questions on automation, possible issues that can arise, and how to break things.

The job entails more work that simply development. So why does it seem development is always at a higher salaray, and viewed with more prestige?