Netflix does outbid Google and Facebook routinely in one key component: base cash salary. I think you can request a portion of this in stock but the default is cash.

So you’d get $350k handed to you straight cash versus the traditional approach of base + stock + other variable components like bonuses, performance based comp and refresher stock. The 500-600k numbers you’re suggesting are not realistic for an average mid level engineer though.

But in general, Netflix’s comp philosophy is a complete outlier in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Might be more common in hedge fund or quant roles but I don’t know much about that world.