Getting a salary that pays rent/mortgage and puts food on the table doesn't always have to be about being in a rat race (which is what the "laddering" bs really means), to the contrary.
Because context is hard, I guess, my point is that "exiting the rat race" is generally something that only people with Mountain View addresses and opinions like "400k TC really isn't THAT much, if you think about it" tend to be able to do.