The "tens of millions" (for outliers) is exaggerated, I'll give you that. What I meant to say, perhaps a bit more tactfully was that if you're an above average software engineer capable of getting a Wall St/Hedge fund type job, you will also have options of riding "rocketships" where your equity package can turn out to be several-millions to tens of millions. And your base pay these days will also not be anything small, although perhaps not as large as Wall St.

I also happen to know quite a few finance guys at top tier shops who are not quite cracking google-level compensation, even all in. But this is all anecdotal, and may not be representative of shops you're talking about.