>> Something to do with status from headcount?

And usually projected as ensuring bus factor > 1

Yes, there are companies that opt for broken organizations for a variety of reasons. The observation though is this; Does this lead to a world where the 'minimum' programmer is what we consider today to be a 'Senior Dev' ? It echoes the transition of machinists to operators of CAD/CAM workstations to operate machining centers, rather than hands on the dials of a mill or lathe. It certainly seems like it might make entering the field through a "coder camp" would no longer be practical.

“Wasting” effort on juniors is where seniors come from. So that first approach is only valid at a sole proprietorship, at an early stage startup, or in an emergency.

n=1 but my experience is the ratio of what'd I'd class "senior" devs (per the example given) to everyone else is comfortably 10:1.