Well, you could work for yourself. Often times, it's more stressful, more risky with lower pay until you "make it". So since you can live stress free and afford basically anything you want on a salary as a software developer in Europe, not sure why you would want anything more than that.
Of course, plenty of people work for themselves, that's the beauty of the free marketplace.
But to assume increasing salaries _is the way to go_ feels like such a capitalist/american viewpoint that it's hard to understand why it's trying to be applicable to Europe too.
Sure, but if you are a really good engineer in software, someone is going to get "very rich" from your work. Why not (partly) you?