But at the moment there are quotas right? So it's basically the same - there are N visas to give out so you rank by salary and pick the top N.

Another problem: different industries and roles natohace different pay ranges.

If you decide on a single pay cutoff software engineers will starve everyone else out. And there are of course great, well paid people in other hard to hire industries.

Maybe that's ok? It would raise pay in other industries.

I doubt it. Most are limited by the economics. They just don’t make as much per employee as software.

Something about those industries would change. They might charge their customers more or train up more people or get more creative with technology. Or the market might decide it can do without that additional productivity from those companies.