It didn’t take being “rich”.
My budget is lower than it was when I was making $135K (the median college educated couple in the US makes that much) when I had my house built in 2016.
The only thing different that I’m doing based on my income now is subsidizing the rent for my younger son instead of selling my old house and paying cash for the Condotel I bought. It was the same price in 2022 as what I bought in 2016.
I don't really see anything wrong with your reply, I was mostly replying to the person who was whining that you have to be rich to do it. But I do think, if you had less income and fewer assets you would need to go about doing what you did in a different way.
On the other side of tech compensation, that’s less than a returning intern I mentored got when they came back - and not as a software developer as a junior consultant at BigTech working remotely where we make 10% less than software devs at the same level
I still posit that it is more about priorities (and lack of dependents) for your average mid careers professionals.
There are people making less who choose the RV life or AirBnbs and cars.