It’s basically the minimum amount of ETH needed to ensure there are a lot of validators all in sync. If it was less than 32 ETH, there would be way more validators and it would be very difficult for them to all sync to the correct block every 12 seconds.
Software engineering is one of the most lucrative and high paying jobs out there and y’all want an extra few hundred for doing interviews?? Come on now.
I understand the point being made in the article but that amount of money just isn’t the best incentive
But yeah, 32 ETH at the time of the Beacon chain starting was only a few thousand dollars