It's really not an attainable career for almost anyone. Not even the vast majority of professors, who juggle the actual research with grant writing, mentoring students, lecturing, organizing and participating in conferences.
I've been doing just that and still am, in my own field. It doesn't make money but it sure does eventually lead to influence and results. The money gradually creeps up (for instance Patreon, once you have enough influence to pull some patrons) but it never becomes comparable to normal work.
If you want to do this but also have some fancy resources, inherit money. That's literally what happened to me, and it's returning to baseline with a moderate boost from having invested what I inherited in tools and materials.
Many people can obtain financial independence fairly quickly, think FIRE, at which point less lucrative careers are quite reasonable options.
It's a bad situation for tech people to have to deal with the FUD of all other departments because those departments want to present themselves as knowledgeable and contributing to the technical aspects, when they are not able to at all.
If you stay out of the “news stream” you can pursue your ideas deeply and even if someone else is working on something similar, you will have your own unique take on it.
It seems naive to think that getting on those shoulders in this modern age won’t create a brand new batch of low hanging fruit to pick if you’re willing to put the effort in
Arguably this is just one interpretation, the other being "we haven't made fundamental progress since that time period".
In my limited understanding as a mathematician, there's definitely room for progress: settling the measurement problem, or formulating a theory of quantum gravity, say.
During exceptionally busy periods I frequently hire someone full time for a few weeks or a month to handle all of the things I can't.
It's super common.
On the other side of things, I could never hire someone to help me. I have to spend my time worrying about trivial things like optimizing my food budget so I don't starve. I don't have the ability to pull away the distractions.
And yes, I am a tech worker in the USA. I still have to do this kind of thing.