An org that limits individual contributor salaries loses it’s individual contributors to companies that don’t. Senior principal engineers and principal engineers frequently make VP and Senior VP level salaries. If they aren’t, the talent leaves.

Does it not have an HPCR and ECU? Or is it still all mechanical?

The shadow moving is more akin to bandwidth of transmission rather than speed of transmission. You still have to wait for the photons (so speed of light) for the information to arrive, even if the “speed” of the shadow appears FTL.