Now, $200k isn't bad. But the offer I accepted from the public tech company is for $420k the first year, and will likely go up from there, especially if the stock does well. It's not crazy to think I could be making $600k - 800k within a few years. And to be honest, I think it's on the low end for the big tech companies at my level. And it doesn't come with some crazy grind as far as I can tell. People seem to actually work 40 hours, the PTO policy is flexible and people take 20-25 days a year off, people work from home when they need to, the benefits are solid, etc.
After this experience and seeing the huge disparity in pay, I would never go work at some random startup unless I was founder level or deeply, deeply believed in their mission.
Check out https://levels.fyi ...from everything I've seen, it's pretty accurate. The numbers there for my company and level were almost $70k lower than what I ultimately accepted.