You sound like a very confused dude.

At the end of the day it's a simple thing, you prepared to slave (likely 12hr per day at least) for higher pay or you get a cushy job and stick with your decent pay.

Asking others is a waste of time, everyone will say different things because of different life style and expectation. It's like auditors, everybody knows the simple calculation that their pay per hour can be lower than admin assistant, they themselves also know, but most stay for a variety of reasons and dun consider work life balance an important thing.

The only thing I can say is make your lifestyle decision yourself, you are living it after all.

PS: Going for work life balance to devote more time to gamble stocks is a bad idea IMO.