Sometimes the learning curve is so high, that you would rather pay extra for upfront experience.

I imagine there must be roles in the programming world that are specialised enough for this to be true. However, at least in my own experience, it is mostly general programming ability and/or domain-specific knowledge that set one developer apart from another in the speed and quality of their work. Both of those take time to acquire and have value accordingly, but they are highly transferrable across specific tools. Soft skills also matter alongside the technical ones, and much more so as seniority increases, but it’s the same story there. I can’t immediately think of a field of programming where hands-on knowledge of specific technologies matters more than these other factors.