Plus, the opportunities to double your salary or even get a +20% bump plateau pretty quickly. You might be able to do it early in your career, but let's say you're 15 years into your career making a great $200K/yr salary. You're not going to just suddenly find a company willing to pay you $400K/yr. My last job hop was for +0.5%. Even assuming an average year-on-year bump of 5% (taking into account job hops) is ridiculously optimistic.
The key is that first job. Compare someone whose first job pays $50k/yr to someone whose first job pays $80k/yr. Assuming both average that 5% compensation increase every year, their outcomes will be totally different. After 30 years, the first person will be making ~$200K/yr and the second one ~$1.2M/yr, and their lifetime earnings will be $3.3M/$12.6M respectively.
The key is that first job. Compare someone whose first job pays $50k/yr to someone whose first job pays $80k/yr. Assuming both average that 5% compensation increase every year, their outcomes will be totally different. After 30 years, the first person will be making ~$200K/yr and the second one ~$1.2M/yr, and their lifetime earnings will be $3.3M/$12.6M respectively.