Perhaps an easier way for people to think of this is to consider a car. The parallel for inflation is the car accelerating. The parallel for prices is the car's speed.

Sure, we're no longer accelerating like crazy, but our speed is far higher than it was, and our ability to drive safely is diminished despite not increasing our speed as rapidly.

I agree with your statement regarding how wages have failed to keep up with prices since 2019. As I show here: https://medium.com/financial-strategy/real-wages-are-down-8-devastating-our-wealth-now-what-50d4e76caacf real family income dropped by more than 5% from 2019 to 2022.

However, the long-term historical trend is for income to grow slightly faster than inflation, so we have at least some basis to hope that income will catch up with prices in the coming years.