I don't believe I'm being contradictory with data or with those statements (which I did look up). It's been hard for me, pay is lower when offered, and "diaspora" is essentially a huge amount of people leaving wherever they are, even if I painted a rosy picture of startups (lower pay, lower stability, worse work-life balance, required moving) gobbling up most of them. In a few years, I think it'll be better and we'll be in a better non-FAANG place, that's all. And some of us will be working at the next ~B$ company.

The data? layoffs.fyi shows that the market has had massive layoffs recently.

I can just look at the rate of recruitment emails arriving in my inbox, too. It's all but dried up.