Some of us (men and women) are just not cut out to play this salary game. :-(
It never hurts to keep tabs on the market by doing interviews outside. In fact, I'm pretty sure I know many folks that got promotions/raises simply because they bothered to look elsewhere.
Keeping in mind, of course, that monetary compensation is only one aspect of a rewarding job.
Worst decision of my life, and I still regret it to this day. But knowing the fact that my old job was taking advantage of me just because I am a new-graduate, I couldn't return back there. But sometimes money isn't really worth comparing to being absolutely happy at work.
Interesting framing. The way I see it, you were successful in determining that you're worth more, but you landed at the wrong place. Like, the issue isn't that jobs that are awesome AND that pay well don't exist, the problem was you just didn't land in one.