I agree that the exposure drives it higher, but it's also cost of opportunity. If my tech job was not paying me enough, I'd quit and try to launch my own thing

I agree that the exposure drives it higher, but it's also cost of opportunity. If my tech job was not paying me enough, I'd quit and try to launch my own thing because cost of entry are laughably low (which are not in the other industries you mentioned) and potential to have a good self-started business is decently high. In real estate, finance and oil and gas I believe you need to either start with big bucks yourself, or convince people to loan/let you manage them to you. Tech is ridiculously easy to get started with compared to almost any other legal high paying job, you can learn just following a few free courses and from that build apps that people are willing to pay.