I've had the same experience.

Noobs are cheap but they write noob code. They can be useful if lead by a good senior engineer, but usually when companies start getting cheap, the senior engineers are already half-way out the door.

This literally happened at a start-up I was a foundational engineer at. They started hiring noobs, a year later the entire senior engineering team left after getting stiffed a raise.

They are still struggling to pay off the technical debt.