I also suspect there's a personality aspect. Software engineers make good money, but that's not their primary, or only motivator. They're willing to trade a bit of that income for QoL.
I'm taking two years to work on a moonshot startup because the problem is interesting and I'm one of the dumber people in the zoom. I took a pay cut of 50% on paper and closer 80% when you price the stock realistically.
Interesting work that I'm ethically OK with is pretty much the only thing I care about. I have taken positions that involved a reduction in pay because the work itself is something I'm particularly interested in, and would do so again in the future.
