Same, I realized that spending 2 years to get to 1k in profit a month from a SaaS or something was a lot harder than just getting a job that paid me 12k more.
1k a month passive profit from a SaaS is worth a lot more than 12k extra salary. A full time job requires full time labor to continue producing income. Whereas SaaS hopefully almost none to maintain it, has a better growth potential than your salary raises, and when you're tired of running it, it's an asset you might be able to sell to somebody else.
That makes sense until you realise you've spent 10 years working and you'll have to work full-time for the foreseeable future because you don't have a 5k monthly (quasi) passive income
Side hustles can also turn into a new job. What starts as a small YouTube channel can become 2x your annual salary with a fraction of the effort. A side project could turn into a full fledged business. While obviously uncommon with side projects, the chance this happens in the labor market is essentially 0.