I think there are some missing premises here. To have a meaning discussion on this topic, we should not forget the context in which these arguments / opinions are formed. First off, the answer is subject to which area of expertise one earns his / her PhD from. Yes, what you said may happen to some IT/ programming / software engineering / data analysts but it could rarely apply to say, history graduates. I think you are just this close to telling stories like some Wharton MBA holders earning really lucrative income --- what you say can be true, it is just that this is way too misrepresentative to PhD graduates in general.

Moreover, which school / lab one graduates from can make a huge difference. I for sure would not be surprised if any fresh graduates with excellent track of publication records from MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and the likes get paid of 300k USD annual salary. Certainly, this is no longer news in Silicon Valley or many cities in California. Even Chinese companies, more than often, are biased towards graduates from elite universities.

One more thing, I can read Chinese and I could not help but suspect there is a slight chance you are doing advertisement for this group or corporation you mentioned, purposely or inadvertently

While I do understand the reason why your friend do this, I just wonder how he gets away or explains the supposedly 'missing' say, 3++ years in doing PhD? Well, also that puts him in some sort of risk which I think he is willing to take --- for not being honest on education qualification can be a good reason to get fired, if found.

Well, I am not judging... in the end, the seriousness of this issue is up to the company management executives to say, not us. I am just merely pointing out it could be risky... after all, concealing qualification related information during hiring process can be interpreted as dishonest or even violation against certain policies. Just saying. Frankly, I am more leaning towards your friend and understand why he is doing this.