Comment by scarface_74

Your HR department doesn’t control the budget. They carry out directives from their management. This is endemic across the industry from small companies to in my experience of n=1 at BigTech.

Even there people get better offers coming in externally than they do an internal promotion.

On a related note, it was also easier coming in as an L6 (senior) than it was to get promoted from an L5 to an L6.