Thank you for sharing your perspective from someone who has done it. And congratulations on becoming financially independent! I feel you have shared a lot of wisdom in that one sentence. Life is now, not later.
It echoes what my brother-in-law told me when I blathered in our family WhatsApp about my (maybe) plan for 2022: "If this is driven by your friend's unexpected passing, then my suggestion is to live each day. Don't wait for retirement as life is too unpredictable. You should be able to live a good life while saving for retirement."
I'm still on the fence about grinding LeetCode to get into a FAANG or equivalent. However, I am rationalizing that even if I don't go for FAANG, getting familiar with LeetCode (even if not a grind that consumes my life) could still be an invaluable skill to hone as it would make those types of interviews less of a concern and more companies are adopting CodeSignal-type online assessments as their pre-screens.