Or maybe they can sleep well at night the rest of their lives, knowing they changed the world?
On the other hand we reward the people who actively cheat and exploit the world with large sums of money.
Ask any old person whether they would prefer a pile of gold or a good night sleep, a fat bank account with vultures circling overhead or a comfortable feeling that they did good.
The latter can’t buy the former (although the former often happens anyways...life is funny). The former can never buy the latter and most oldsters I know grow to think the latter is the only thing that ever really mattered.
It's called survivorship bias, and it means that these very romantic ideas cannot be trusted without compensating for the bias. Those with too little resources died before you could ask them.
Indigent old people stuck recycling cans to make ends meet probably don't have this worldview.
"I still have sleepless nights trying to figure out how I’m going to pay the guys the next pay cycle"