Similar here, 20+ year career. I think it's because I've never targeted the FAANG tier. Started in the low hump of the trimodal dev comp distribution before I'd ever heard of it, noticed there was a middle hump and moved into that before long, expect never to make it to the top one. I don't think I could handle an entire day of their interviews, as being in high-pressure meetings like that for hours on end wipes me out and turns my brain to mush in short order—and that's if I put in a ton of prep time first and were prepared-enough for the material to pass.

Out of curiosity when last did you go through this? I've heard from a few friends that even dev is brutal right now with many places leaving listings open, but not filling them, hoping for a FAANG dev to come along.

We are more highly desired than a typical PM, especially at the salary this person previously received.

Yeah, this is closer to my experience as well.