Keep in mind that a 401k is almost all funded with your own money. The amount going into the 401k is deducted from your paycheck... you can see it in one of the boxes. A pension, on the other hand, was funded by the company. And that is the exact reason there are so few defined-benefit pensions today in the private sector. These things were so incredibly generous that they are potentially bankrupting the original company... GE is certainly in that boat. Of course companies would prefer employees to fund their own retirement, perhaps sprinkle in a limited employer match subject to 5-year vesting, than to fund the whole thing themselves!

While this is true, the company could just pay you $18,500 less and put that in your pension. Benefits are fungible.

That's not how a defined BENEFIT pension, like what GE offered for decades, works. The "defined" promise is related to what the employee receives, not what is contributed.