That is based on the pretty bold assumption that SV salaries are the actual "market rate" while it is much more likely that the true market rate is much lower a

That is based on the pretty bold assumption that SV salaries are the actual "market rate" while it is much more likely that the true market rate is much lower and SV salaries are inflated. There is enough talent outside of SV that is willing to work for much lower salaries. Actually there is orders of magnitude more talent of similar quality/intelligence available globally.