Can I get Toptal level vetting without the premium price?

Yes, and that is the main reason to consider a dedicated team. Acquaint Softtech vets engineers in-house to a comparable bar, then places them on your product as a team rather than as individual contractors, at offshore rates from $22 per hour. You keep the quality signal that Toptal sells, but drop the embedded markup, the deposit, and the subscription, and you gain a project manager, QA, and continuity that a freelancer model does not include.