As a follow up to your edit: I think we agree on what market rate is, but what market rate actually is for tech is subject to a wide variety of answers. So that may be where the discrepancy comes from.

that and the article in question giving questionable numbers like:

>50-70k is a junior’s salary. Your people with 10 years of experience with C++ or whatever should be paid closer to 300k

50-70K out of school is normal in the US, but not necessarily all of US (70K in expensive areas like San Fransisco would be low balling, even as a new grad). 300K, even after 10 years, is not normal, not unless you started at a top company and/or have been aggressively chasing pay raises, internally or through job hopping.

BUT, while abnormal it's also not a surprising number to hear either. It depends on so many factors.