> A competitive market would enable me to sort by salary and benefits and apply for the best job.
I am always surprised to see comments that make it sound like jobs (or, employees) are fungible commodities that can be bought and sold purely on price.
One simple example - two jobs may have the same title (Senior Developer, or whatever) but have totally different expectations of communication skills, leadership skills, ability to handle pressure, etc and would pay very differently. So you (and everyone else) would be tempted to apply for the top-paying job but potentially not be qualified.
Or the situation where a company is very flexible on who they hire and thus would pay a lot more or a lot less depending on what the individual brings to the table.
In a way, I think there's a bit of "you don't know what you don't know" principle at play here. If someone has limited perspective on how career development, seniority, and hiring work, they may really believe that the big problem is "I can't sort my opportunities by salary." Someone with more experience and understanding may recognize how non-fungible people and roles can be in a way that a simple "sort by price" cannot capture.
To use your real-estate analogy, would you ever buy a house that came up first in a price-sort? No, you'd both want to really understand the nuances of the house (location, condition, etc.) and how it compares to your needs and your ability to pay. IE, you'd often take "not the best price" because either there's something wrong with the property or it's just not suitable to your needs." Hiring is much the same.