I disagree here. I've seen many cases in FAANG of someone being hired at a lower level than they should, just because the company gets away with it, and the hir

I disagree here. I've seen many cases in FAANG of someone being hired at a lower level than they should, just because the company gets away with it, and the hired person still gets better compensation than they were getting before. So you can certainly have both newgrads and people with years of experience being paid the same. Although not for the reasons that you initially mentioned.