> Those companies have often been sink or swim though and if you don’t make the grade you’ll be kicked out pretty quick. My last company had a reputation for new starts disappearing and not great that way, but the team was probably the strongest bunch of people I’ve ever worked with as only do good survived.

This is not what I would call a "strong" team. This is what I would call a developmentally stunted team. By that I mean they've reached competency as individuals, but they have limited ability to level up fellow developers. As such, they are not a producer of talent and rely on actual strong teams for their hiring pool. In my experience, these teams are best avoided if you actually care about growth.