If you are good at security, try bug bounty hunting. Make the web safer and earn some money!
For the same surface-level stuff, yeah. Other, in-depth issues, not so much.
> people show off their massive payment bug find, but in reality its hours of work for almost no payout
They don't advertise it as some "get money quick" thing just because they show off their payouts.
I occasionally find issues which make me $100, $200, $300 for a few minutes of work, it's not much but it's something.