Yup, you nailed it. Most companies are content to let this kind of anchoring and psychological inertia let them lose out on capitalizing on their investments, but let's remember that this isn't necessarily unintentional. Companies continue their ability to function sustainably by adequately utilizing and providing career trajectories for the majority of employees that work there, for many of whom the stress and risk management of trying to figure out how to get promoted "up or out" is not worthwhile. For some companies, it's important enough to retain high performing outliers that they put in place recapture, recalibration, or boomerang mechanisms (as another commenter wrote somewhere in this thread). But for others, it may just not be necessary.