Personally they would fail my initial screen for employers unless they were very upfront about paying a quite higher than market salary. If you send me that reading list and everyone else is just doing normal interviews without all the homework, you are asking for a lot more and I expect that trend to continue after you hire me, so I'll expect a lot more out of you. So far I haven't found anyone with these high expectations willing to pay more (got plenty of people who want me to drive into their office wearing a suit for less than what remote jobs are offering for example), generally the offers tend to be lower than normal companies with standard expectations. Another clue is the "we are looking for passionate people, they need to be excited" stuff, those things in tandem smell like a low baller.