"Trickle down" has never made any sense to me. Maybe it's different at big companies, but at small ones 100% of the hiring I've observed goes something like this: "uh oh, we have[1] more business coming in than we can handle, better hire!". Never, ever "welp, we have extra cash, better hire for... uh, some reason". Extra money without an actual need to hire more workers might go into marketing or sales, but only to a (lowish) point.
[1] Usually "we have", but sometimes "we anticipate".
[1] Usually "we have", but sometimes "we anticipate".