@ucbalumnus I generally agree with you except insofar as non-competes can only be enforceable if the company continues to pay you for the term of the non-compete. If I am working for a company and rising through the ranks, eventually I will have responsibility for accounts. After a certain point, those accounts remain clients because of me, not my company, so without a non-compete, nothing would stop me from striking out on my own and taking my clients with me. They could pay half of my billing rate from my company, and I’d earn double the salary. The non-compete prevents me from doing that.
When I left my first company, even after just four years of experience, my client basically offered to double my salary if I came and worked for them so that they could cut out my old company. Non-compete was a factor in my decision-making at that point!