They were maintaining Python itself, likely very well (as one would expect) compensated. It’d be a waste to have these devs do product development.

All SWEs at the same level at Google are making the same compensation (with some exceptions for high-flying AI researchers). They Python SWEs certainly weren't making more than anyone else.

That's not true at all. (Excluding the factor of location), the compensation of a SWE depends not only the level, but also on tenure, on performance rating (and the history of rating), and on stock market fluctuations (whether the stock price was low or high when the stocks were granted).

One of the rumors is that the better compensated you are on your level, the more likely you are to be targeted for layoff, because it saves the eng cost the most.

None of those depend on the project you're working on, which is my point.

All SWEs at Google are well compensated. Not all of them would be a good fit for maintaining Python.

Then I don't understand the point you were making in your first post.

A waste of talent not of cash.

That's the thing, it's not clear that the Python core engineers are more talented than other Google SWEs on average. You have all sorts of talented engineers working on all sorts of random projects within Google.

They have three months to find new roles/teams. Their employment only ends if they can't.

Assuming this wasn't financially motivated.