keep in mind the Blender Foundation is based in The Netherlands, not San Francisco. That salary might go a much, much longer way compared to if Blender was based in the US (maybe, I do not know the average compensation for skill programmers in that country).

Yes, this does sound about right. Makes it feel like a drop in the bucket, though. The amount of ground that Blender is trying to cover is ridiculously large because they're deliberately trying to turn it into a jack of all trades (compositing, audio and video editing etc.). The result is that it is a true master of none.