If I am a capable person working on delivering node improvements dealing with smaller and smaller challenges as the physics issues become quantum - I will eventually start to ask myself: why am I working on the hardest physics problems in the private sector for 150k/yr, when I can transition to Facebook or Jane Street, work equally (if not less) as hard and make 500k/yr?
The US has plenty of smart people. I'd argue more that the wealth inequality gap makes it _incredibly_ difficult to justify working for less, even in a field you love, when you can make top 1-4% of income doing something else.
Personally I think the other half of the problem, Big Tech paying so much might be solving itself right now, excepting really only the very very top.
If the government has to provide the funds, so be it, make those jobs valuable enough and the skills will be there.
What you’re describing is in the R&D area and also not physically dependent on being colocated in a fab. So we should have an easier time finding that talent, although we’re probably underpaying them now, as you point out.
These are all downstream of R&D. If your fab cannot shrink it's node size, then you won't get the most profitable orders.