I can relate to forcing focus on time management. I've got little for everything else but I'm only focused on the long term so I know there is light at the end of the tunnel.
You are completely right. These days and with my hormones completely abnormal, butterflies and raw emotion are non-existent. I almost feel robotic.
Not to make light of their situation, but I imagine it wouldn't be so unbearable if one worked at Google and is highly compensated, and still had to work on their start up on the side. The crux of the problem is dissatisfaction of the day job, not the amount of work hours.
Generally migrant workers know that they can save money and live better, relatively. Whereas in a dead end day job you know your situation doesn't improve, even if it is in absolute terms better than a migrant's life.
We're made to look forward to something better.
Unless you have a startup in which case it makes the balance difficult. We have offices in 40 countries and measured that China/HK work the longest. (Well over the 10k sample size to make it relevant and excluding factory workers.)