They didn’t even match your offer. That’s not a serious counter. Also sounds like they are massively underpaying you for a “senior” position.

HDHP/HSAs make sense if you are using them as a long-term savings vehicle. This works when you don’t have many claims and can afford to stash money into the HSA and invest it for the long term.

My family has a lot of (relatively predictable) claims. When given the option, I have always taken a PPO/FSA over a HDHP/HSA. The math has always worked out in our favor to avoid the HDHP. If you know you will have a major medial claim (like childbirth, surgery, etc) you probably don’t want to be on an HSA if you have the choice.

Everybody’s circumstances are different. Personally, I want cost-sharing to kick in sooner, and I can get that with copays and a lower deductible. My last 2 plans had $10-15 copays for specialists. There’s no way in hell I’d give that up for $200 specialist visits with a $4,000 deductible.

Some people want to take advantage of an HSA so it acts more like a retirement account, and that works for them. Everybody is different. Just don’t get sucked into the trap of one being better than the other. There are too many variable and the answers is always “it depends.”