The last decade or so of startups have mostly been ZIRP phantoms, cookie cutter in most ways. React app, AWS stack, something something like uber but as a service.

There were some great lessons in the earlier days but I think we're well into the hype train now. When people like Neumann and Bankman-Friend are in the peer group, you're probably in the wrong group.

If you're financially flexible (no one to support, etc.) then you can still have a lot of fun as a one-man band, possibly travel somewhere LCOL. Otherwise you might want to consider a corpo job for a while.