I learned editing from a seasoned editor who the studios paid $10,000 a day.
This isn't true. That means he was making roughly $3m a year as an editor... Most producers don't do that in a year.
Top Hollywood Earners of 2009
Note that number 40 made $13.5 million... and that was Brad Pitt (off backend and what not mind you, but still).
Very, very few people make $10k a day, and nobody would quit a clock in 9-5ish job making $10k daily to try your luck on your own.
$200 is a very cheap indie editor rate, most people bill days at about a 10 hour day in the industry so he's only doing $20 an hour for his time and use of however many thousand dollars of equipment.
$350 is a little more reasonable, and I know guys doing really great work with top of the line gear charging $600-1000 a day. It's usually not on a 2 month project though, just a one or two day thing. When you're working on a project that you dig in for 8 weeks straight, the price comes down.
People often don't think about the gear the editor uses. It's important when paying for time and not by project. A guy may charge you $250 a day to edit slow computer and take 3 days to edit a project because it's loading, rendering, converting, etc and you're paying his time to sit in front of it while it does it. The same guy might charge $600 a day on some higher end gear and finish in a day the same project that took 3 on the old stuff. Maybe a little bit of an extreme example, but still. Worth considering. Especially comes into play with any effects work.
If you're paying by project and you don't care how long it takes him, then the cheap guy on the old gear may work out.
Again, rates aren't set only by gear, but by talent and experience too.