I like this solution, but many are in a situation where we can't move to a new city or are just a step or two below the talent required to get into a FAANG. What then? Sub-FANNG companies?

Alot of the people hired at FAANG arent that talented. They just studied hard for the interviews. Its a myth. The long term payout is worth the months of study

This is the sad truth. I spent 2 months studying programming questions, whiteboarding, and doing mock interviews to pass the interview to work at a FAANG company. I can't count the number of times I've whiteboarded the binary_search function by hand (a skill that obviously proved worthless in practice). Once you get past the interview, you can pat yourself on the back and affirm to yourself that you are 'talented', but the truth is that once you're in, its more or less like any other job (ymmv of course).

Which means moving from their country to the US for many. Not practical for all.