If they can expect to get and retain someone for 90k which can do the job then it’s hard to argue anyone is actually worth 10x as much.
I am not saying nobody makes 900k, just that if they are willing to budget 900k they might be looking for more from an applicant than someone whose skills only commands 90k base salary.
I work at one of these big companies, and at least how we do it is to see what kind of candidates we get, then compare seniority vs potential vs abilities, and decide which person is the best overall fit. This might be a junior person who gets $120k/year or a senior person that will get $400k/year. It depends on who applies, and how they would fit in with the team. 90-900k is quite a gap, but 150k-900k would be kind of reasonable to be honest.
