As soon as the underlying reason(s) no longer exist, loyalty will be revealed to have evaporated.
I've seen it multiple times at multiple companies. A couple of which were employees of over twenty years with the respective companies. None of which were bad places to work, or in any way brutal with their employment policies or conditions.
That's just how it is.
The best thing to give a shit about is the quality of your own work. That will serve you well for now and the future.
They pay for mercenaries, they get mercenaries. Rarely do companies pay for veterans, at least not good ones.
Different people have different preference here. But if you have an open space, and zero budget for tools, and chronically understaffed projects, and the salary is kinda average... well, you send a loud message.
Try it the other way: let the veterans have their own room with doors, give them the tools they need, maybe reduce their work time to 6 hours a day while keeping their salary competitive... and most of them will be happy to stay.
Or be honest and admit that you prefer it the way you have been doing it so far.
It’s not their responsibility to swear life long loyalty just because you need them. Especially when the second they are no longer needed a company wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of them.
Most software shops can’t have mercs because they aren’t built for it, they just assume people will stick around. If you want to run efficiently and confidently with mercenaries, get knowledge out of people’s heads and into robust documentation and architectural design records.
On that note, there seem to be many tech companies which try to portray working for them as joining a community + good life + money (etc).
To see examples of this, look at almost any tech company's "Careers" page, before it shows open positions. ;)
I’m not interested in any of those things. They are better off showing two businessmen shaking hands or stacks of money.
You are renting your skills to an entity that needs your skills for an agreed upon rate for a certain amount of time. If another employer offers you a better situation and your current employer doesn’t counter with a better offer you leave. The rules are simple and your employer knows how to keep you if they really want you.
Getting a job is not like joining a gang or a fraternity where you are first promised a community and good life and then the money is just a formality, but that’s what people seem to see it as. Rest assured, it should always be about the money first. Money is what I’m all about and my career isn’t any worse off for it nor have I ever had to work myself to the bone for no reason just to please the company gods.