The real reason is that companies do not need to hire any more people, they can always take their time picking the best of the best candidates and there is no urgency, because rates are too high to profitably build software.

Many companies i know, even those having successful products, are in the "profit mode" - fired nearly everyone except a few people to keep the lights on, and maximise their bottom line (and product is doing great). There's very little upside in building things now because it does not translate into increased valuation - only thing that does is profitability (not having too many unneeded expense lines like devs), and pricing power/market control - and anyone not having it simply haven't survived through this point already as last time when one could still profitably build new things was like 3-4 years ago.