But the company was smaller, the 401k contributions quite a bit less, and then # of available contracts after this one was up, would be quite a bit less. Also I get to work from home 3 days a week on my current contract, and the new one doesn't have wfh. That saves be nearly 2.5 hours a day in commute.

So I leveraged it to get a significant raise from my existing company.

Normally, if you ask for a raise, they smile, and maybe give you a 2% increase. If you want a great increase, you have to get a legit offer elsewhere for more, and then either take it, or leverage it to get the raise from your company