A senior engineer can be worth a lot more than $35M. Even just shaving 1% off the time that the server software consumes are worth many millions of dollars to the server company. The server companies compete for those people, so they get paid lots of money.
There is no power imbalance. If a worker produces a lot more value than he costs, he simply goes to another company that bids higher for him.
I'm sure just on this thread you'll find a ton of engineers who have saved their company millions of dollars, but they're still paid the generic wage everyone else is.
There is no power imbalance. If a worker produces a lot more value than he costs, he simply goes to another company that bids higher for him.