While I may live in a relative outlier (Norway, with its petro-boosted economy), that sounds like an exaggeration. (Deep sea business, fight for much the same talent as aerospace, senior dev, $95k base and some $35k on top of that in various compensation and bonuses. While well paid, I am probably not in the top quartile nation-wide for my education level and experience)

But yes, the OP is very much right in that companies building actual, physical products don't have the kind of money to burn on engineers that a SV unicorn does...

That income is plenty for me not to have to worry about a thing financially, though. Housing is cheap, transport cheap-ish.

Maybe in Toulouse (Airbus HQ) which is a fairly low cost of living city compared to SV or Seattle, or Paris for that matter, and would allow for a fairly comfortable life.

Still good enough for a double income household to live a very comfortable life and have a houe of your own. Simply comparng base salaries is stupid.