The difference with software engineering is even if you "fail" you usually have a nice pile of money to show for it. If you drop out of a PhD all you have is some cool stories and obscure knowledge.
As if obscure knowledge is worthless. Trading the opportunity to make money for obscure knowledge is the whole value proposition of a Ph.D.! If one doesn’t value obscure knowledge, yeah, a Ph.D. Might be a bad value proposition for that individual.