You’re not wrong. If I said anything that made it seem like those who get paid less are worse developers, that’s on me. But there are many who are amazing developers who can’t take a government job because the pay is too low. It seems odd to rule those people out. If we’re fighting for better pay for everyone, government jobs should set an example.

Many of the best developers are doing free open source work yes, but many great developers can’t because they have bills to pay and mouths to feed and charity &/or government work doesn’t pay well enough for that