> No, that's simply unfair to the companies who don't have billions of dollars in free cash flow or effectively infinite amounts of VC money.

I mean.... so what? Why should I, as an engineer, care if some companies are suffering under the "unfairness" of high salaries?

> which has a side effect of creating an oligopoly on talent

It doesn't really make sense to use the work oligopoly, which has certain negative connotations, for a situation where companies are merely choosing to outbid others.

I would only use the term oligopoly, if there is some sort of unfair barrier to entry, such as because of some government law that is hindering competition.