Thank you that you exist, Douglas and share your wisdom on Medium :)
I pursued a bachelors in Sinology with a focus on Eastern philosophy because I really love Eastern philosophy. I wanted a PhD. But I decided already to stop after the bachelor because of all the reasons you mentioned.
Too many professors were more focused on their ego (or something else?) than really giving value.
And I thought with academia, I can't really help people. It's great to push ahead research in this field. But the research doesn't make sense if people can't benefit from it.
That's why I learned everything around the content creator economy and started writing and sharing it online.