So now I can't do that negotiation again.
You can and you should. Musk's layoffs and the ones that followed are a coordinated press campaign. The total impact on unfilled jobs for IT professional programmers was a tenth of one percent.
But according to the news cycles, without Musk's microservices there's plenty of us to go around now. /s
Yes. Companies are hiring slower right now because there's less venture capital money sloshing around, but they're accumulating company-ending-event technology debt while they do it.
Mark my words they will be desperate for your talents and paying accordingly soon. I predict another big hike in base pay as the game of chicken ends in a mad scramble. We will also see more companies paying long term consulting rates instead of staff rates for IT solutions.
Source: As a developer who hires developers, I'm watching this trainwreck from both sides of the track.