Sounds like a loaded question to me. You know what the big deal with startups are: the potential to create something new and interesting, become independently

Sounds like a loaded question to me. You know what the big deal with startups are: the potential to create something new and interesting, become independently wealthy, to not answer to a job or deal with the 9-5 daily grind working on other people's ideas, etc. Nobody here made the claim that working at a startup is the most direct path to happiness.