I don't think the situations for math or physics are perfect either. There are far fewer academic positions for mathematicians, physicists, chemists, etc., than

I don't think the situations for math or physics are perfect either. There are far fewer academic positions for mathematicians, physicists, chemists, etc., than people who are qualified to do and would like to do such work (that is, to research math qua math, or physics qua physics, etc.). It's just that such people can currently get hired to do other things. It's good that they have fallbacks. But it's still not clear that we as a society really value or want mathematicians or physicists, as opposed to coders and quants.