Depends on where you live. There are lots of places in the U.S. where you can buy a house on a developer's salary. Not all startups are located in areas where the cost of real estate is ridiculously high.
We’re talking about startups, it should be pretty clear what geography is implied. You can live in those places but getting VC funding in one of them is an anachronism if it’s possible at all.
The bottleneck to making more money isn't directly employees, it's leadership. Market wins.
This would imply that EMs and Directors at bigger corporations are making that kind of money. Far as I can tell, they aren’t.