It's interesting to frame this in isolation as one group of workers against another versus looking at the larger market power and wealth accumulation dynamics that have driven us in this direction. I agree with the sentiment about sustainability, but don't think the framing points us in the right direction.
To make this concrete, I am less concerned about how much AWS pays its SWEs than I am about their market dominance making it so a huge number of workers who could have worked in a more humane business have no other choice because the competition has been crushed. Cutting SWE pay and redistributing to warehouse workers would result in 1) SWEs leaving and going to one of the many companies that continue to pay more for their rare skills and 2) a relatively small raise when distributed across warehouse workers, which would be eroded away by the bean counters over time since there is no employer competition left.
To make this concrete, I am less concerned about how much AWS pays its SWEs than I am about their market dominance making it so a huge number of workers who could have worked in a more humane business have no other choice because the competition has been crushed. Cutting SWE pay and redistributing to warehouse workers would result in 1) SWEs leaving and going to one of the many companies that continue to pay more for their rare skills and 2) a relatively small raise when distributed across warehouse workers, which would be eroded away by the bean counters over time since there is no employer competition left.