I'd like to see an article titled "Why Get a Quant Job in Finance?"
Other ML fields like robotics and deep learning have virtually limitless applications that may benefit society in some way. Of course, I have heard the arguments for statistical arbitrage being useful by way of reducing inefficiencies in the market and providing liquidity, but this is far less tangible.
And I think kasey_junk answered it pretty succinctly. That's not to say that it's the only valid reason to want to do anything. It just happens to be quite a common reason for people to become quants.
If what you want to do is answer the great questions in life then I'm not sure that being a quant is necessarily going to help with that.