'Would love to understand and learn. Why laugh?
Well, IMHO it's because you're dealing with the so-called "lemon problem". There is huge adverse selection when looking for so-called "good developers". The
actual good developers already have very high paying jobs (that they've developed for themselves)... right? You know of any good developers who aren't already retired or working full-time making less than 250k/yr? New grads are getting 6 figures to learn on the job. Seriously, so...
When you go into the market, and don't know that much about developing software yourself, you can't bring yourself to pay good money for fear of getting ripped off. Because of this, the good developers leave the market and all that's left are the crap developers... and they're not worth paying at all. It's a vicious cycle and, again IMHO, why the market for "good developers" is perpetually tighter than a virgin's sphincter.
Forget the junk you read about the "massive layoffs" in tech... those were "sideline" people who were hired to sit the bench as investments. Again, they already have tons of money and the next job they take they'll want to get paid for mostly sitting around.
You want to see a proof.... I'm a good developer, honestly, I rip; know a bunch of different languages built AI models 20 years ago when it wasn't in vogue... now basically retired living off income generated from a custom trading system (that, coincidentally, took 20 years to develop). I'll work for you but you need to send me a $10k check in advance and I'll deduct $350/hr off your retainer as we work together... you ready to start? Didn't think so.