The major hft firms do pay well but new grad pay is often inflated in a few ways - signing bonus is included in “total” as if it’s recurring, first-year guarantees/targets are treated as recurring total, “this pays out over 4 years” is lumped into single-year recurring total, and you only hear about the biggest and best online.

2020-2022 high tech sector pay and huge profitability brought by the return of volatility also saw much higher base/bonus pay across the board, but the market really cooled down towards the end of 2022 longwise all the tech layoffs and HFT firm over hiring. I watched a few eye watering open offers fade away towards year end myself.