Where did I say it bugs me? I said that it eats up the defence budget, which is a fact. You increase pay substantially, your budget needs to increase correspondingly to get the same output otherwise it has to eat into somewhere else.
I am happy with my civilian career, I do (in my opinion) a lot cooler stuff civvy side than the majority of things you can do in the military on a regular basis. Plus I am in the process of switching workforces to a nice 4/10 schedule (Tuesday-Friday 7-5). Life is good.
I have never advocated for halving salaries, I am just pointing out that increasing wages doesn't increase capabilities. It may or may not retain workers, but it doesn't make those workers perform better, nor does it buy equipment that allows those workers to perform better.