>>430 square-foot apartment with a wife and a baby while making six figures

Just because you chose a horrible situation doesn't mean that should be the mean. Many people live in a dirt-floored hut with no electricity or running water and that doesn't indicate that we should find that to be acceptable rather than trying to raise the global standard. That sort of thinking led to the ridiculousness that is SF/NYC real-estate.

There are other parts of the country where you could be living in a house you've purchased and still make "six figures."