I don't know where you've met all those programmers who are good at their job

Most of my professional experience is from working in smaller startups, grown into medium-sized ones, that I've picked to approach for work because I liked the programmers who already worked there, I'm guessing that's why :)

Consulting for various IT and IT-adjacent companies of all types of sizes, I certainly understand where you coming from, they tend to already be burned out (or something) enough to not ask questions anymore.