I'd say it's 90% the pay issue. The remaining 10% may be real. You often hear on HN that in interviews, after the candidate has passed the phone and CV screens and is actually in front of you, cannot even code up fizzbuzz in under an hour. I mean, that's pretty bad to not be able to do when you paid for a degree or a dojo or whatever to 'teach' you. I think that there really IS something of an issue there, but I agree with you, it's almost entirely about the money.