highly skilled professions like law, medicine don't have a problem with age discrimination, because of the marginally significant positive correlation between years of experience and results. these fields also weed out the incompetent early. there's plenty of well-paid >50 software engineers out there who have no problem finding work, because they've made a mark in some way throughout their careers in the field or have transitioned into engineering management. alot of the more average older engineers though looking for jobs at high-growth companies honestly just don't merit the salary premium. the ability to engineer something thats "maintanable long term" is (1) not really a skill that's exclusive to people with 20+ yrs experience, (2) not really demonstrable or quantifiable especially for middle management living quarter to quarter, (3) is often a skill that close-minded engineers that really are just set in their ways and resistant to innovation mistakenly think they possess. most of your average software jobs really aren't that hard, and decades of experience don't really gain you as much as you'd think.