Yes, I am quite sure. The typical FAANG developer is not earning $200k base and $200k RSUs per year. It's more like $130k - $180k and maybe $80k to $150k RSU. You have to be pretty senior to reach top 5% income at FAANG in the US--it isn't as common as HN would have you believe.
There's a gap between FAANG and, say, a janitor's salary; that's just not debatable. The gap is much smaller than between Mr. FAANG and Mr. Top 5%, and for all intents and purposes Mr. FAANG is Mr. Janitor when compared to Mr. Top 1%. That some FAANG employees are in the top 1% doesn't negate this.
I guess it all comes down to which unequality we're talking about. Sure, if does not significantly affect the difference between the very top and the rest. But there are a lot of differences between different brackets from the ones at the bottom up to 99% too.
Those differences between the lower brackets exist more because of the power those in the top have. Raising incomes of those in the lower brackets might increase the gaps between some of them: but those gaps are much smaller than between any of them and the top.
They do? How can you be so sure there are causation between the two? Lessen the gap between the 99% seems to affect the general consensus (since 99% share a more similar type of life and experience status /money wise), making it easier to change the rules for the top 1%.
To me this feels like falling into perfect is the enemy of great trap. Just because this topic might be affecting you (assuming you're a software dev), and because it doesn't affect the top 1%, doesn't make it smart to widen the gap between the 99%.
And as I've noted in another comment, top 10% doesn't put you in the same socioeconomic class as the actual wealthy (https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-much-incom...).
There's a gap between FAANG and, say, a janitor's salary; that's just not debatable. The gap is much smaller than between Mr. FAANG and Mr. Top 5%, and for all intents and purposes Mr. FAANG is Mr. Janitor when compared to Mr. Top 1%. That some FAANG employees are in the top 1% doesn't negate this.