Your approach to pay is really refreshing and attractive as an engineer, and also seems like the exact type of thing most VC or larger tech firms would really hate. That alone feels like evidence of your conviction
The fact is that it only has to be good enough for them to find the people that they want, rather than for pleasing random HN commenters.
I presume you wouldn't consider European remote given your PST timezone requirement, but I guess I'll consider your company one of those dream places to work were I to make my return to the US!