This, a million times. Even in the Bay Area the non-FAANG tech companies (including stock contribution to compensation) is not the "retire in 5-8 years" levels

This, a million times. Even in the Bay Area the non-FAANG tech companies (including stock contribution to compensation) is not the "retire in 5-8 years" levels people seem to think. I worked at non-FAANG for almost 6 years in this area before I moved to a "FAANG adjacent" (i.e., a company on par with FAANG scale, salaries, engineering needs, etc.) company. My max salary, as an EM, including stocks, never got over $200k/year, even though at that time I had over 10 years of experience. I moved from an EM role with RSU stock compensation to an IC role at the same level with only pre-IPO options and my total compensation went up.