I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's just that typical corporate culture (in the US at least) is not accustomed to giving large internal raises to employees based on increases in that employee's market value.
Most companies base their annual compensation on giving people a few percentage points for cost of living adjustment, then a few more percentage points based on performance. They standardize those numbers so they can say, 'you did average, you get 4%' 'you did great this year, you get 6.5%'.
Many, many companies don't factor in at all that employee value on the market can increase much, much faster than 2-8% per year. Even companies making money hand over fist. The usual way of approaching annual raises is wildly unsuited for compensating talent that is in high demand.
Only once has this gone badly for me, but it went really bad. Tried to mentor a guy, two years later he’s our boss and everybody hates him. Like we go out for coffee to talk about how much we hate him.
Ladder climber extraordinaire. Gotta learn to watch out for those, but in this case he only connived in private and nobody caught on but one and he left.
At a growing company, if you're a growing individual, there's room for you to rise.
At a stagnant or declining company, if you're outperforming your boss, there's a strong incentive for your boss to want to keep you down to keep his/her job.
In a growing company, your boss might be happy to get your promoted to his/her level. Instead of subordinate, now you're a potential ally on the same level. I think in a healthy environment almost anyone would see that as appealing. In a stagnant company, that could be mean your boss loses the job. Almost anyone would see that as unappealing.