I'll let you in on a secret: understanding what you understand there, go back and take a look at hacker culture fan favorites like _Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution_.
All the stories are like this. Either adults taking advantage of some naïve rich kids who don't understand what money is worth, or the same rich kids using their status-induced naïveté to get away with computer fraud without consequences. A lot of the "wholesome" tall tales of those rich white kids would have ended very differently for poor Black "youths" but we don't talk about that here.
And it's the same for most "success" stories you hear about where the punchline isn't simply another "rags to FAANG employee" non-miracle: all the billionaire wonderboys already started out wealthy and with access to the right social circles. Even the ones that will tell you they came from poverty.
We need to kill our heroes (figuratively speaking) and realize that programming is just a job like any other. Collectivize and develop solidarity with your peers, don't chase dreams of becoming the next tech billionaire (unless you're already in the right spot, in which case, just don't be as much of a jerk as the last guy, okay?). It's okay to love what you do but that doesn't mean it's okay for you to be exploited, even if you personally are doing well enough not to have to care about the exact size of your paycheck.