The ultimate issue here is that demand for recruiters (in London at least) far outweighs the talent pool so companies choose to hire decent sales people and mould them into recruiters. Due to the sales culture involved, monetary incentives are the only thing decent recruiters are interested in. If you find a talented and successful recruiter I can guarantee they are earning close to six figures a year (some earn a lot more than £100k) and should they put their own CV on the market they would have dozens of companies throwing ridiculous money at them to get them to come work for them.