>I feel like paying attention to salary signals is actually close to the optimal strategy, most of the time.
Yeah, when I was starting out? I was always shocked at how closely the salary correlated with how well you are treated in general. I mean, personally? If I feel like I'm overpaid, I am okay dealing with more bullshit, but that's not how it works. If anything, as I got paid more, less was expected of me. I mean, less of the hard stuff. Showing up on time, for example, became much less of a big deal as I got paid more. (For me, showing up on time is often the hardest part of the job.) - I mean, sure, I was expected to solve harder problems... and I was expected to actually come up with a working solution more often... but that was never the hard part for me.
Should you take a $105,000 offer at a company you hate over $100,000 at a great company? Of course not. However, if an offer comes in below market, you have to question whether that's for legitimate economic reasons (lower cost of living, cash-poor startup) or because it's a lower-level position than you deserve and, if it's the second, run.
Unfortunately, it's still really hard (especially when you're young) to tell a good job/company/role vs. a bad one before starting, so salary gets overvalued as a signal, because of the opacity in the career variables that, in the long term, matter a lot more.