Worth the money?

I was at a party on Saturday. One of the guests was a GP. I thought I'd wind him up by asking if he was enjoying spending his quarter of a million a year. He took it quite well. Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking GPs - every day they have to deal with an endless stream of the dregs of humanity moaning about their runny noses or a broken finger nail. Cut them off or pull it out, I'd say. And without anaesthetic. There's really no way I could cope with such pond life, even for a quarter of a million a year. But I digress. When we got home the missus and I were discussing medics' salaries and I was wondering whether any doctor was worth a quarter of a million a year. "What about the best brain surgeon in the whole world?" suggested the missus. This got me thinking. We all talk as if brain surgery (like rocket science) is really tricky, but is it any more difficult than, for example, replacing a knee joint? Do brain surgeons really do any more than crack open the skull as they would a boiled egg and then dig around with a spoon to remove the bits that have gone bad?