Exactly this: highly paid engineers are usually PHDs or otherwise researchers focusing on difficult problems. Their output can’t be measures in lines of code commits on github. Nevermind time spent mentoring younger engineers, reviewing pull requests, advising management, etc. Ask me how I know.

That said … at my previous job for a while near the end they were paying me to do very little indeed. I was not happy. Eventually the company ran into trouble, laid a bunch of people off (including me) and now I’m a lot busier at my new job… also happier.