I'm new to this field and always thought that SWE (at least the good ones) most definitely add value in exponential multiples over the 400k value but maybe I'm delusional by all the VC speak over twitter. Does he have a point and that we're mostly overpaid?
If a SWE is more like a baseball player than a factory worker then perhaps the valuations are worth it - and arguably if a $400k total comp employee provides $401k worth of value to the company, they're worth it.
With sports players it's more clear that you can't take some random Joe and get Babe Ruth or even Tony Gwynn, it's not so clear that you can't take an intelligent office-worker and make them a coder in some period of time.
