Being in the right place [at the right time]. Keep in mind that HN is very Bay Area centric. Sometimes life sticks you in a shitty market, or maybe you lack insight/information to allow you navigate it effectively. Other places like the infamous r/CSCareerQuestions nearly exclusively target FAANGs, and other large tech companies, and if you haven’t been optimizing for that, you probably won’t see those outcomes.
$70k-$80k may seem like something unobtainable now, I’ve been in nearly the exact same situation as you there. In a few years, however once you’ve built up some experience, you may find that a lot easier to achieve, even at a less than desirable company. I had to move to reach that much because at the time, the market I was in was just total shit. The positions I was interviewing for then, versus when I was firdt entering the field were miles apart in terms of pay potential.
Also as much as Hn loves to shit on formal education it does offer some value. University hiring pipelines can be incredibly useful. I had an old friend graduate and then immediately got work in a really cool domain. I was kinda jealous. How did he do it? Well the university provided clubs and programs he worked in and potential employers, partnered with the universities worked to source entry level hires from the school.
And remember whether you’re better or worse than average, skills are not particularly worth anything till the interview at least. It’s more likely you aren’t getting responses due to things like ATS screening.