I’m glad other people feel the same as me. Sometimes it seems like if you’ve got a SDE job people think you’re the king of the hill. I’m working on an exit from tech as well.
The idea that software engineers are paid more than everyone is a fallacy. There are a good deal of jobs that pay significantly more, especially when looked at over the long run. It generally does require going back to school, which is a risk/reward tradeoff that must be examined.