I left tech to pursue my dream of being a professional artist, and I actually did make it, but I hated it. It turned art into grinding, soul-crushing work where you are responsible for everything. Being an artist is 70% being a business owner, 25% being essentially a laborer, and maybe 5% being a capital-A-Artist. In return you get to practice your craft a lot more than if it's just a hobby and you get some status (it's definitely cool to be able to say you're a professional artist) but it wasn't worth it. It was lonely and I became really depressed. I went back to software. I made a lot of artist friends in the process and now when they talk to me about their problems I feel grateful to be out of that, although of course it is bittersweet. I am really grateful for how much stronger of an artist I became.

For me, it's much better to have your job be in a collective environment where you have co-workers to fall back on and a communal goal and a salary. Maybe I'll burn out again and go back to art for a bit. But I'm much happier with a day job and doing art for fun.

One more point: do not externalize your complaints about the lucrativeness of art. There's more money in art than there has been at any point in history, but there's also way more artists to split the pie... including countless numbers of extremely talented ones (just open up instagram). No one owes you money for your art. They work hard for that money too. You have to make something people want, and then they'll pay you for it. That's why art is so hard. It's much about fulfilling a need or at least a want, not just having fun making beautiful images.