When people talk about agism and finding it hard to find a job as an older person, they're generally comparing against someone with the same capabilities and salary expectation going for the same job. (Edit:) And they're not complaining about companies not matching their salary, they're complaining about not getting an offer at all.

It isn't in comparison with the job available to new grads.

(Of course, there's the question of whether a senior industry hire is actually only worth some factor of a new grad hire.)