Am I not understanding what "market rate" means. I bought my care at market rate, it costed less than a lambo. But it also didn't cost $10.

"market rate" usually applies to a single good (or goods that are fungible between themselves). i think for your car or engineers we would say there are many different markets depending on skill level, location, nationality etc

The mistake is that companies want a certain quality standard for as low a price as possible, which means their salary expectations don't match their quality standards but they put out press releases telling everyone that it's not the case.

True, although I assume that also applies to footballers...