If you messed up this bad your employer would fire you. Fire your employer. Don't make a stink. Get an offer and give notice. Discussions with management aren't going to do anything but leave a bad taste in their mouth. Never ever bad mouth previous employers and teams no matter how bad they are. It won't help you and it could hurt you.

Now... I wouldn't actually quit immediately. Do your job well and get to the two year mark. You want everyone sad to see you go. Employment is a means to end and keeping your resume well groomed is critical. Your current job is the last step to your next job.

I doubled my compensation (110k to 240k, remote work from NE Coast city) in 4 years and every manager I left wished I hadn't, but they simply couldn't swallow the trajectory I could get by leaving. Each job has been better than the last and each job has been a step towards my next one. I believe I have 30% more to go and then I will be done. All this to goad companies into paying the amount they are actually willing to pay, but simply refuse to due policies that prioritize cost management of visible costs over retention. Go figure.

I know people at past jobs who are getting absolutely demolished on comp for doing the same work I do. One guy making < 100k. You don't necessarily need to leave if you are willing to take on more leadership roles and title changes and can wrangle that, but I don't want that. I want to simply get paid the max for what I do at any given time. My time is valuable to me and it is not a renewable resource.

Employee retention is their job not yours. You are a fungible cog to them and you should behave likewise. Employers are only as good to their employees as they have to be and you should act in kind. You are literally punished for staying with your current employer and rewarded for changing employers. You didn't create this incentive structure you just have to work with it. You shouldn't feel guilty. They are adults running a business and could be competitive if they chose to.

Employers behave this way because as a group employees tolerate ridiculous behavior ranging from constant nickel and diming on compensation to outright nonsense like this. They set progress for existing hires based on churn and churn is usually not high enough to drive change. They also base progress on trailing indicators (churn) at which point the best have already left. You can't fix it.

I have come up with a very loose calculation for how long I stay at a company. It starts at 4 years. HR is bad? -3 months. Weak comp improvement (<5%) at the end of year 1 or year 2? -6 months per year. Lied about something in the offer letter? -6 months. Amazing team members and work? +1 year. External offers > 30% more for same or better quality work? -1 year. Bad manager? -1 year. If it gets down below two years I will stay for two years unless I can't possibly stand it which has never happened.

Obviously I won't change jobs if I don't stand to gain something substantial to justify the transaction costs and risks.

I am not sure the company that justifies staying longer than two years when you have room to move up exists. My current employer is in what people might think of as a different class so I don't know how it's going to turn out. I didn't create the incentive structure I just work with it and I refuse to apologize. This is business and they are not entitled to more than two years.

Employers don't cry because you confuse brinksmanship for negotiation. Learn what a BATNA is and get with the program. You don't choose how much your employees are paid. You only choose whether you get to be the one paying them.