"Lapsed biochemist" here, the incentives for maximally pursuing a career in science are not there. 10y in the lab, I did cutting edge science for <50k/y, got s

"Lapsed biochemist" here, the incentives for maximally pursuing a career in science are not there. 10y in the lab, I did cutting edge science for <50k/y, got some papers out of it. 5y in software industry, I'm out earning my old boss who has been in the game for 20+y and is top of his field. The saying in academia is "there's no money to argue over, that's why PhDs are egomaniacs". I'm sure it's for someone, but it isn't for me who: is the only person in their family in history to have a degree, and is non-generationally wealthy. I paid my parents mortgage for years when they got laid off in 2008 on my academic salary. Maybe American gentleman scienists? Nearly all the US grad students I worked with (NE USA) were from bonkers wealthy families. I was a lab rat who loved the work, and got to see some things humanity had never seen before. The money just isn't there under the system we have. Over 70k in student debt racked up, paid off by software industry, not academia. All I could think in my last two years in the lab was: "This is it. I'm never going to be able to pay off this debt like this." pulling 10-12h days on experiment days, coming in weekends to feed the mice/cells/other lab bullshit. No thanks.