[tikhonj]

It's way too hard to have a career in research or even get into a decent PhD program at all for the "finance brain drain" to matter. Research salaries are low, the conditions are hit or miss and yet, somehow, a faculty job is one of the hardest positions to get. We can worry about that when mid-tier universities stop getting hundreds of resumes for tenure-track positions.

For now, the fact that technically minded people can have a backup plan that pays well is most definitely a feature, not a bug.