More like a $250,000 salary + benefits. Medical coverage is hideously expensive for example. Plus retirement, dental, insurance, and taxes. Still a cushy salary for a dev, but not completely out of the realm of reason.
That's definitely a high salary except for the biggest companies in the richest parts of the richest countries.
I do thin the parent's point still stands though, my current salary is not nearly that high but you'd have to pay me a lot more than $500k for me to risk hacking an American pipeline. That's an insane amount of risk for a few years worth of salary (that I'll probably have to be very careful laundering if I don't want to raise suspicions).
That's incentive for someone living in silicon valley to not do it, but outside of the hubs most of the United States has miniscule demand for tech workers (using that term very loosely), and the majority of the world would average out to something like "30k, but the job only exists if you live in the capital".
I do thin the parent's point still stands though, my current salary is not nearly that high but you'd have to pay me a lot more than $500k for me to risk hacking an American pipeline. That's an insane amount of risk for a few years worth of salary (that I'll probably have to be very careful laundering if I don't want to raise suspicions).