That quote is very profound. I know from my own doctoral research how difficult innovation is and how stressful that becomes. I want to also have a personal life outside of just working and what I saw at my university was unhealthy to the extreme. I got my doctorate, but I quit academia. You only get one life to live and I couldn't see why I should work endless hours for shit wages, worrying about obtaining funding year in and year out, dealing with the terrible communists who run US campuses these days, and so on. It was a completely undesirable lifestyle with only a few redeeming qualities.
Bottom line, for me it was less headache to become a software engineer and take longer vacations once in awhile. I would rather do hard research or R&D, but it is what it is.