Companies which are satisfied with their ability to hire and employees who are satisfied with their ability to find jobs don't have to even care we exist, though they're certainly welcome to play our games.

Sadly, many companies are dissatisfied with their ability to hire and many qualified engineers are dissatisfied with their ability to secure desirable jobs. In economics, they call this a market failure. In CS, a search problem. In business, "a shedload of money available for the taking."

In Starfighter, I guess we categorize that as "the mid-boss."

More like a unicorn 10X Developer shortage. Companies will be pleased to find candidates who are eager and willing to jump through yet another proving ground, after having had so much fun with commit histories and stars on GitHub, SO points, and what have you[1]. They'll find smart candidates who are willing to work for them in exchange for being able to work on Interesting Problems and the occasional you-are-so-smart implicit approval.

[1] Meet the new standard; same as the old standard, and in addition to it.