The central claim of the article seems to be that they are being compensated unfairly relative to the value they bring in. I think its a pretty natural question to ask how their compensation stacks up to other industries.

The best case scenario you could end with would be that they are not being economically exploited. The worst case scenario would be that they are hopelessly being exploited. The truth seems to be that on a pure economic level they are being exploited about as much as your average low wage worker in capitalism in a poorer country (which is a significant amount of exploitation) but its not quite extreme level of exploitation as the article implies. However, you also have to somehow account for the ickyness/mental affects of the job and its unclear how to do that.

And yes, i believe its important to do the math on human suffering. That is how we make a better world. Not all claims of suffering are equal. The millionaire techbro sad he cant afford a private jet is not sufering in the same way as someone who is struggling to pay for a meal. We distinguish the cases by doing the math.