Don't know if I'd call it easy if it's something only 8 out of 100 people do. It also depends on the area. $100k in SF is a lot different than $100k in the mid-west.
You are not understanding the other possibilities here.
The other possibility is that yes, it is true that it is not that hard to make it to this level of success, but the stats are still true, and it is simply that people don't do this, for other reasons.
There are a multitude of reasons, as for why someone might not join lucrative fields, even if it isn't that hard to do so.
For example, maybe they simply aren't aware of it, or they incorrectly think it would be difficult. Or maybe there a social reasons why people don't do it.
Or maybe, in order to achieve that level of success they would have to move, and I know that lots of people don't want to do move.
My sister-in-law's fiancé is doing it as a journeyman, and he's making very close to what I do as a mid-level SWE.
This is not a very useful statement without a ballpark figure. Mid level SWE salaries range from <100k to >300k depending on the company.
How does the percentage change when you look at people with full-time jobs? With full-time professional jobs? Who are actively trying to optimise their income instead of for example prioritising family? I'd guess it becomes much larger very quickly.
https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/tables/pinc-01/...
In any case what you’re proposing is selection bias. No one should be surprised that people who work full time are more likely to make six figures than those who don’t. And yes, if you cherry pick a group of “professionals” who receive larger salaries of course the percentage will increase. And it’s back to survivorship bias for the “prioritization” examples you mentioned. Unless you happen to have a random sample of people who don’t make six figures but would prefer to.
Being willing to show up full time is necessary but not sufficient.
> According to the 2020 census data linked below the percentage increases to around 24% for individuals who worked full time all year.
It said and implied nothing about people trying or not. GP attempted to cast this as "1/4 of people succeed, so it's easily achieveable"
Also, if I look at the people around myself and see that 1 / 4 are able to do something, it would probably be easy. So it’s the GPs own self awareness combined with the stat.