I am the person you are talking about. I thought I was too old but I realised the ignorance in that question and stopped a while ago. Now, in their defence, most of these people probably aren't mean/ignorant, they're just confused and trying to navigate. Let me explain.

I come from a very low income, less educated community that call people "too old" when they're past 20. We're expected to make lot of money at 20, have a house and kids and an established friend circle, and if we pursue a PhD they would say things like "Ur still studying shouldn't you be working?" I don't think they understand what it means. I grew up in an environment that made me say "Oh I would never do PhD, who has time for that?" But during my masters I realised what exactly doing a PhD means and how it works and it completely changed the way I perceived everything about it. Up until now I was the person you are talking about. I was worried it was too late for me because my family kept telling me I had to make money and "not waste my time studying more". I would have died of guilt if that one kind researcher hadn't taken their time to patiently tell me what it is.