> They also pay a lot of money because that's the only way to attract enough candidates who can pass their hiring bar. If they stopped asking hard interview questions and increased their candidate acceptance rate they wouldn't need to pay people 300k/year to fill their open positions.

I have 16 years of total experience. Their initial offer to me indicated they thought I would take $231k/year for the privilege of working there. I got them up to $253k/year. Both numbers are less than I make now (though the latter is close).

As far as I am concerned, and based on my direct experience, Google pay is not the hit shit everyone claims it is. Maybe it would be if I played the competing offer game, but I shouldn't have to do that.