I would disagree. There are several sections of STEM where there really isnt much for you. What are you supposed to achieve with a bachelors in physics?
I got a BS in math and physics, then continued for a PhD in physics. Today I work for a company that makes measurement equipment. We have engineers from most of the traditional disciplines, but they tend to be silo'd, and happy to avoid math and theory. Unavoidably, understanding (and proving) how the product works involves a combination of mechanical, electronics, data processing, statistics, and so forth. My long term role is to be the person who understands how the product works, not only acquiring domain knowledge but creating it.
The deal is that physics isn't an exclusive guild, and there are people in other disciplines with similar inclinations, but they're as rare as physicists. So I can't tell you why you need a physicist at the exclusion of any quantitative engineer with 30 years of experience. I can't promise that you'll get rich at it. I just try to help people and learn new things.
My PhD was sure a very nice to have, but never a life changer.
Would I do it again? Probably yes because of the tremendous joy research brought me (and free time for parties!).
Did I recommend it to my kids? No, they are better off with me specific studies.
Of the 100 or so people in my MSCi physics degree programme there were:
About 40 who went on to do PhDs ... of which about 30 are now academics, the rest went pretty evenly into the categories below, just a few years later
20 went on to some kind of elite professional services: investment banking, consulting, law or into large corporate management graduate programmes
10 are teachers, tutors, or have some other allied role
10 are civil servants or work for think tanks or other NGOs
20 have jobs in tech in various capacities
Start an internet payment, space exploration, electronic vehicle, tunnel boring, or direct brain-computer interface company.
The mean ROI on a bachelors in physics is probably the highest in STEM.
Apparently, they're also popular on Wall Street
Mandatory SMBC link: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21
Historically, the most successful examples in each of those industries have a physics degree. I cannot explain the causation.
Elon Musk also drives the mean for physics majors way up.
It was supposed to be a joke, which maybe people missed, about how Elon Musk was a physics major and how mean values on power law distributions are distorted greatly by the outliers.
So I have n clue what the median is, but I assume, like all income and wealth distributions it follows a power law distribution.