Know that this is a thing that exists in the world. At least one HNer could get it approximately tomorrow if they wanted it. Typical form is a large equity grant which, for a publicly traded company, is indistinguishable from cash with a vesting schedule.
pg is an HNer. It's safe to assume that several other HNers have reputations that would allow them to write such a ticket. Do you assert that someone whose only marketable skills revolved around software development could achieve such a thing?
I believe that a (relative) large number of HNers could pull 2M in comp annually. I believe very, very few could do so in a purely-technical, no-management role though...PG included.