...and an epic example of the bigger they are the harder they fall in the making. Am typing this from Sierra OSX, btw, not cynical, just kind of bummed about the decline of OSX' quality.

Some of this seems the inevitable fate of all large tech companies.

Apple / Amazon / etc compensates highly to retain engineering talent -> overweight tech salaries -> engineers burning out / leaving for more interesting startup opportunities -> successful startups being reacquired

Unfortunately, doesn't work so well for things like operating system codebases (NeXTSTEP acquisition aside).

I'm not sure the salaries have anything to do with it, and I vaguely recall Apple being middle of the pack there anyway.

I think it's more about appealing to peoples' ambitions and desire to be recognized in this case. Imagine if a VP of Engineering addressed you directly to 'make a big impact' on the company's new secret product. Many engineers would want to impress this person, consequences be damned.