There is nothing superficial about being attracted to a company - especially a startup - that uses near technologies. When your startup fails - and statistically likely it will, the only thing I would have to show for it is a bullet point on my resume when I apply for my next job.

There are a lot more companies that want you to have experience with their technology stack than those that just want “smart people” (tm) and that will take the time to train you.

On the other hand, salary compression and inversion are real. Your market value will go up by $some_big_number but HR policies will only allow raises of $some_small_number. So you have to keep your eye on the market and be prepared to jump ship.

Anecdotally, I was once hired for a company that wanted to build a new product in .Net. The new product didn’t find a market, but their legacy product written in PHP did. None of us wanted to spend a year doing PHP development. All 14 of us left within six months.