He was a solid performer with an upwards trajectory who had impact beyond the expectations for his level. He was absolutely not dead weight. In fact, if I had to choose the lowest performing person on my team it would not be this person.

But that's not the only reason why someone might not be worth keeping. Imagine if this employee got a negotiated contract of $2million compensation during the growth phase, company might not care that he was the best performing employee when they want to cut the cost by $2MM.