The advantage of the 10x-er is that he will be reporting directly to a Jr. Executive and therefore cutting ahead of the middle management echo-chamber.
If you genuinely can write code 10x as fast as the average developer, and get feed requirements through a 10x faster channel, that would be the life! I suspect that's where the mythical 100x developer comes from.
I agree. There are actually two 10x things that can happen - sometimes in one person. One is choosing the right things to do the first time around. The other is doing them very efficiently. When you get a developer who intuitively understands the domain, and programs very quickly, the sky is the limit.
I certainly don't intend to diminish the impact of these 10x developers, just that projects generally get messed up independent of developer quality.
If you genuinely can write code 10x as fast as the average developer, and get feed requirements through a 10x faster channel, that would be the life! I suspect that's where the mythical 100x developer comes from.