To reply to the title and not the article, tech companies do pay engineers to stay…just probably not you. That’s the point of RSUs, LTI, and other grants that are unlocked through retention. More get released to employees during their tenure based on performance. If you aren’t being paid to stay, chances are that was a systemic consequence of performance. Not always, but usually.

There are pros and cons to losing employees, and quite often it’s Pareto optimal to let people move on to bring in new talent. Engineers are generally paid pretty well, so money is rarely what a departure is about. I’ve seen a lot of engineers go, and only once was money the first reason.