This work seems so much more challenging, interesting, and fun compared to what I do as a senior software engineer. Why does hardware engineering pay so much less??
The number of hardware designs companies can produce is restricted by economies of scale and the less mutable nature of hardware versus software, which in turn restricts the number of hardware engineers needed and thus the market demand for their skills. Also, much of the hardware production pipeline has been moved overseas to places with lower standards of living.
For the same reason game development or software development at SpaceX pays so little: if people want to do it you don't have to pay them to show up, only to survive.
