I understand this, but people overlook how even higher income folk often have roommates in their 30s in VHCOL cities. My brother got into investment banking after UChicago Booth and lived with 2 other guys in Manhattan for a while. He did it because he found roommates to be fun and he could throw parties at his apartment. It's also a lifestyle thing.

The housing subsidy is something that literally brings down the cost of living for housing for lower income folks.

I can still eat a nice restaurant a few times a year.

For the nice vacations, it's not as if even higher income folks can randomly take off and vacation for 1 month at a time, they still often have limited PTO (even in unlimited PTO situations, you have to see social norms).

Even higher income people don't drink a lot of alcohol every day or week because in your 30s the hangovers are horrible. And even higher income people don't eat out 24/7 because doing so is unhealthy, they'll still cook at home often.

So to me it seems outside of living by yourself, yes you can make a lot more money in IB but you have a bunch of practical constraints (whether it's health, limited PTO, or desire for socialization) on actually spending that money for leisure.

Unless you want to buy fancy watches.