Because you can code, gold should flow copiously into your coffers and the masses should genuflect to our awesomeness.

Or, it can be like everything other job, and not so much.

Ad tech has given developers the illusion they are extremely valuable.

They are, but not that much. Not by a long shot. Google et al massively distorted the software development market by at least 4x, if not more.

What we are seeing now is a massive correction back to some level of sanity for tech worker comp.