[ThrowawayR2]

> "I was thinking that I needed to in order to stay on top with marketable skills."

These people are fine not being on top and are consciously or unconsciously accepting the risk of falling off the rails. The risks have been fairly low for the past decade or so since software's role has just kept growing and growing in society and, at least for the foreseeable future, that growth doesn't seem likely to slow significantly.

Not a strategy I'd pursue but it doesn't seem like an unreasonable bet.