You can't generalize the EU. It are dozens of completely different countries.

> In fact, all the amazing software engineers I know in Europe.. work for US companies, making US software products (and making US total comp).

What is an amazing software developer if it is not someone who delivers business value? Because there are a lot of software development companies in the Netherlands for instance, or teams part of companies, and they surely deliver business value or they wouldn't exist.

By now I would also bet that of the small subset of developers considering emigrating to the States, sure think they've now dodged a bullet.