Think of it this way. We assume higher quality founders would be attracted by higher base salaries. Higher quality founders have a higher probability of successful exits. What is the optimal founder salary level to incentivize talent and maximize the total value of exits by startups? We can put some bounds on it. It's not $0, because then only already-wealthy people create companies. It's not $10m/yr, because that's not affordable by investors.

Is there any particular reason it should be ~$200K/yr instead of ~$400K/yr, or even higher? It's well known that older more experienced founders have a higher probability of success. Should we be recruiting 50 yo founders with decades of experience by guaranteeing $500K base? This is OP's point.