This may be a noobish question, but if Ethereum is mined, how does Vitalik have so much Eth? Did he gift himself a certain amount when he created the blockchain protocol and his initial presale in 2014? Or can he gift himself more coins whenever he wants or is the only way to get more Eth (even for him) is to buy or mine Eth like everyone else?

Wouldn't it make more financial sense for him to code in something like a founders/engineering fee percentage per transaction on the blockchain?

If blockchain developers like Vitalik did it this way, their wealth would grow in parallel with the success of the blockchain utility. This, in my opinion, is more secure, as it doesn't incentivize a pump and dump scheme (founder owns 50% of coins during initial launch and sells all coins when it spikes) Rather, the founders would only profit if the utility of the blockchain becomes successful, like how stock incentives are used to keep the developers focused on long term growth and success, besides giving higher dollar salary compensation.

Or the 3rd scenario would be a mix of both. The founder gifts himself a portion of the crypto AND also collect founders fee per transaction. Thoughts?