I find it hyper salacious. Driving a boat twice as big doesn't make you inherently deserving of double the pay, just as investing double the money doesn't make you inherently deserving of double the return. And the oft-cited accountability of leadership over large machines does not come even an additional 5% closer to validating that salary.
I am of course speaking from a human context, which I realize is not the context normally used when talking about these things. You're utterly right: It's not salacious in the capitalistic context from which we have yet to find a viable escape.