Compared to the revenue a successful product and sales process can generate today, people are still quite cheap.

If your product solves a real problem that is painful, there's big enough market paying for it, and you know how to reach thid market and sell, you can pay a good engineer year salary in a week of sales.

I was starting a recruiting business w/ a consulting model (charge for time, not commission on placements), which is a cutthroat, competitive business. I needed big fat margins because I had to grow the business w/ cash flow, and I started from -1000 USD in the bank. I got one customer to pay me 5000 USD in advance for one job, and that was how I got traction. I needed help, and my first hire was a woman w/ a STEM masters from a good school, and she needed a job. I paid her 15/hour while paying myself 12/hour. Things were tight for a really long time!

I'm not sure that was the intention or not, but from my perspective, your experience reinforces that people are still quite cheap.

What's really hard is building a product/service that solves a big enough problem, is marketable and you can sell.

If you don't have those skills, it's quite expensive to develop them. Way more expensive than salaries, even well paid engineers.