This is more of a “scummy business” article than an “Epic bad” article. The directors in question were sitting on the boards of both Epic Games and Tencent. This was seen as an issue because while Tencent holds a minority share of Epic, they also completely own competitors, such as Riot.
As of 2021, Valve employees made roughly $430K-4.5M, depending on role. Not bad, considering the average salary in WA is around $58k.
Source:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/13/24197477/valve-employs-few-hundred-people-payroll-redacted