Guys like Stig Sony can afford, so I don't think it was due to his salary why he left.
What I think happened is Stig studio was not living up to Sony's expections. Sony most likely felt as though they dumped all this capital into Stig studio and when it came to the test Stig had nothing to show.
I could be wrong.
A lot of these developers are just hyped up, give them a budget and their own studio and pretty sure most of them will end up blowing it and expect more. Stig is probably not that great of a Dirctor on his own on brand new IPs, some people are just good at picking up IPs that was passed down to them or that got a start some where else.
Companies don't have an unlimited check book.








