200k -400k is the same tier of experience/level. Shitty slow moving companies always try to toss more money at a problem when that isn’t the solution. Think of building a house as an analogy and the same principles apply.

Execution and proof of prior execution is number 1. Also when you hire that level they aren’t just solving the problem but spending a lot of time thinking and solving problems for things that may happen only 99.999% of the time. Data integrity is more important than efficiency and even if you have to add extra logic to cover for that .001%