Of course the payout should be the same for every retiree, regardless of what he made in his younger days.
That'd be a pretty fundamental transformation of the program.
Not really. It's already rigged in that direction. Somebody who earned $100k/year in his working days doessn't get 4 times the benefit of the $25k/year worker. They may as well just even it out altogether. Ideally, I'd like to exclude those with high assets from receiving altogether, but that's never going to happen.
What you are talking about is means-testing and giving up on the illusion that it is an investment rather than a form of welfare. Thus, a pretty fundamental transformation.