I know we all want to believe we're the next Carmack but if there's a ton of solid engineers willing to work for a lot less money than you & at the same time global barriers drop that means downwards pressure from lower cost countries and upwards pressure from higher cost countries. I think the last decade or so was an anomaly due to the asset bubble inflating how much money (and how cheap that money was) tech companies had to spend.

You'd think that outsourcing would be all companies would be doing by now if there were indeed legions of capable software engineers willing to do just as good a job for a fraction of the price. That still appears to not be the case, despite remote (and so international) work becoming more commonplace with COVID.

Looking at the explosive growth of companies like Deel that worries me greatly

Exactly. And it not just a generic hiring question. If you want engineers experienced in building leading edge compute systems - one may need to consider what it takes hiring those that have built them in highly compensated areas.

Niiiice calling people from poor countries “the dregs”

The dregs, as in the bottom of the barrel, of the global developer salary band. There’s no need to jump to the conclusion that it’s a judgement on the country itself and look for something to be offended by.

Due to current events someone could say the dregs of reproductive rights include the USA. They’re not making a value judgement on the entire country.

The competition is among companies (and the salary they are willing to pay to attract devs), so "the dregs" are the companies paying those salaries, not the devs.

This is a VERY charitable reading of the GP’s post. They mention beating “people” not companies and talk about “the kind of devs that can move around.”