not sure what to make of your comment. you're simultaneously asserting that the engineering labor market is cost-plus ("the pay is ... a slight premium"), but with its "high" salaries, it's not.
that's incoherent--similarly incoherent to facebook pushing employees into cost-plus pricing while enjoying value-based pricing for itself.
absent significant outside influence, markets, including labor markets, will naturally drive prices down to cost-plus levels through competitive dynamics. if a market has outsized value-based pricing, it's a prime signal of inefficiency, and competitors should enter (not being a free market is a significant barrier, but a different issue).
Not everyone makes FAANG level salaries. There is a very steep gradient of salary levels in tech. At the top is FAANG, right below them are unicorns, and a few more tiers down you get to the bottom feeders, underfunded startups offering worthless equity and hopes and dreams instead of salary.
FAANG salaries are product of the hiring competition between each other and their self-imposed selectivity. Lowering the interview bar would likely open up the hiring pool enough where they could also get away with lower offers.
that's incoherent--similarly incoherent to facebook pushing employees into cost-plus pricing while enjoying value-based pricing for itself.
absent significant outside influence, markets, including labor markets, will naturally drive prices down to cost-plus levels through competitive dynamics. if a market has outsized value-based pricing, it's a prime signal of inefficiency, and competitors should enter (not being a free market is a significant barrier, but a different issue).