> engineers need their fair share. They are the one creating things, they are the one on the front line and we should not get satiated by the crumbles we are left with.

This, 10x and especially for programmers coming for 2nd/3rd world countries, whom are even more unaware of the value they're creating and settle with way less. Obviously, it's easy to say this and it often doesn't help you get your foot in the door when you ask for 3x the average dev salary around you at an interview. Key is to keep re-negotiating after you've proven your value, then iterate until you get the slice you deserve. For a company it's really painful to lose an employee who is already performing well, they'll likely give up on the margin to keep you on.