Substitute “making music” for “programming” here, as a thought experiment. See how that reads. It would still be correct. Low average incomes for musicians and

Substitute “making music” for “programming” here, as a thought experiment. See how that reads. It would still be correct. Low average incomes for musicians and most apps not breaking even is a signal in both cases that the current supply is more than enough, and you should consider other opportunities. People make music in spite of the hardship. All of society benefits from their irrational, self destructive drive for creation. There's a difference between the total and marginal benefit to society. If all musicians spontaneously quit and nobody replaced them, we'd be worse off. But in the actual world, if somebody is deciding whether to pursue a career in music or engineering, the latter probably has a higher expected benefit.