Yep, people hire as cheaply as possible but when they find out they've got a winner, they'll do almost anything to keep them as employees.
Worked at one place many years ago for 7 years. Started at the bottom as a Junior Engineer and was employee #13 according to my badge but in reality I was #6 because they'd fired and lost a few over time.
I got to where I ran the test and calibration lab, took it over from 2 other engineers who said it took 3 to run it and 2 months later I was running it alone. Did that for a couple of years and then had to have help so I hired a few technicians, not engineers. Saved the company more money.
I designed and built all of the test equipment we had because we needed custom testing equipment for what we were doing there.
An in house opening came up for a promotion for me and I applied and was turned down. When I asked why, they said that they couldn't afford to lose me in my current position but they'd almost double my salary to stay where I was (golden handcuffs). I made a couple of phone calls, got offered the promotional job in another company and put in my notice.
A year later the old company got sold, primarily because the chief salesman left because he said the company wasn't getting product out the door fast enough for him to make his usual big bucks and he told them the product wasn't getting out the door because Flash had quit. Sales were too low to keep the doors open.
That's the way life works.