"probably wrong" if you are only looking at engineer salaries at the coasts or at BigCo.

I very much get that businesses live and die by sales--anybody who's been in a startup (much less founded one) does.

But I also get that part of the reason the product sells is because the people working on it are personally invested in the outcome. The engineer trades a somewhat higher salary and lower ceiling for the ability to directly impact how the market and product interact.

It's precisely because sales is so important that I am curious if engineers wouldn't be better served (as well as their companies!) were they treated the same as sales folks.

The fact is that engineers produce value but don't capture it nearly as well, and I cannot help but wonder what would happen if they worked on commission or royalty.