Also, not everyone wants to work in SV, SEA or NYC. If I did that, I'd be able to see my family maybe once a year.

The question really flips when you ask yourself, how much could someone pay me to only visit my family only once a year?

Thanks to the government's complete mishandling of the pandemic, you can work at a lot of these big tech companies and live anywhere you'd like now.

Which means to hire you a company doesn't need to compete with FAANG on salary. This doesn't refute my original point that startups don't really need to compete with FAANG salaries for talent.