re: Can someone explain the highly compensated employee 401k rule

I meant fair in the respect that your employer doesn't create a plan to only benefit highly compensated employees. So if you're going to have a plan, it is intended to benefit all eligible employees, not a select few. If the company does a good job of educating the participants and matching contributions, these issues resolve on their own.

In my assessment of "fair" was the traditional IRA option as well (although it can be limited as well).