The issue I seem to often see, for some reason, is that people who have a say in hiring often don't realize themselves that the great engineer did something quickly thanks to an insight, or, more generally speaking, thanks to being very good, or being able to turn the problem on its head, as opposed to pure brute force.

They often seem to have the idea that it's more or less grunt work. Yeah, if a truck will haul 10 tonnes in one go, you'll get the same time if you hire an army of people, each carrying 10 kg on their backs, give or take economies of scale.