If you can have one programmer do the job of 5, then you will be defeated by companies using 5 programmers to do the job of 25.
Also, if your one programmer dies you now have no programmers and loss of all institutional knowledge, whereas the other company can lose several programmers and still be OK. There is value in having redundant programmers.
Also, if your one programmer dies you now have no programmers and loss of all institutional knowledge, whereas the other company can lose several programmers and still be OK. There is value in having redundant programmers.