The most I've ever made in my life was $28k. I'd probably be perfectly happy with 25k to be honest, at least until real self driving cars exist, that's pretty much the one expensive luxury thing I want besides a few vacations.
They could be from a country with a lost CoL so $28k is a huge deal, they could be living the life they want doing a job they love, etc... Just so happens some future tech is interesting enough that they wish they could afford that too. Not everyone is in tech for the FAANG bucks!
Although if GP wishes they could earn more I assume any account holder on HN is technical enough to find a remote job paying more than that if they wanted.
Full self driving would complete change everything. I could look at jobs I've never even thought about, because of the need for transportation.