False dichotomy. You don't need $500k engineers to write quality software. $150k/yr ones will do it just fine if you teach them how to do it and part ways with those who don't see the value in following basic quality standards.
Pretty sure the OP meant that only $500K+ per head FANG employees are capable of writing quality software. To be fair, you can't write any other software at FNG (don't know about A): you won't be allowed to check it in. Some people leave due to not being able to pass the readability review. But FANG employment is not a prerequisite. I have personally hired something like 20 engineers of varying seniority and within a month or two, they were cranking out impeccable work.
