Just wanted to note that there are systems which are not tax-paid and still avoid the problems that you have in the US.
E.g. in Switzerland health insurance is private, but the variables that can be used to determine the price are regulated. The employers cannot directly provide health insurance as a benefit (some provide a cash supplement, but that's effectively a higher salary). This way big companies don't get preferential treatment. You can be a freelancer and have the exact same health insurance as people in big tech.
You could say the same about bakeries ("seeking to maximize their profits on other people's basic needs").
IMO the problem is more about (very) imperfect competition. Also medicine is very special in many ways (desperate buyers, doctors making decisions for them, moral and emotional weight, etc.), so it's hard to have incentives aligned.
Yes it depends on a particular situation, but the net salary is what really matters in the end. It's better to compare meaningful net salary, even with some gotchas, even as a ballpark figure.
Gross salary is kinda meaningless (from employee perspective) when comparing offers in different tax regimes.
Seriously, people should not choose names which are already taken in the same general area of technology. Even if it "makes sense". The whole point of naming things is to refer to things more or less unambiguously.
1) Feedback (going both ways).
2) Anything that is blocking/bothering you.
3) How you feel about any recent developments in the team/company.
4) Long-term career stuff. What interests you, in what direction you want to be going.
5) Stupid organizational stuff you need assistance with (e.g. reimbursements).
6) Random smalltalk, personal stuff.
The really surprising part is that after this incident OP still wanted to work with that company, even though from what I understand they didn't make it up to him in any way.