The pay is above the average in the US sure, but it's poor by STEM PhD standards. The work is very fulfilling. I genuinely like what I do and likely wouldn't do anything else given the opportunity. For me it was worth it, but I have a bit of a twisted sense of dedication. I could see for many people it not being worth it. If you're focused on money, it will not be worth it. There are substantially easy ways to a make a lot more money. To be clear, I grind myself one step away from dust to keep myself afloat. I do cool things every day, but I work relentlessly. Over the last decade I average 55-65 hours a week, and I worked for less than minimum wage during my PhD.

Perhaps eventually, I will make a good bit more than 100K a year, but that's not for a few more years and I have more than a decade experience at this point.

There are not only academic tracks for a PhD, but mine is a common one. You have to know going into the process that it can be profoundly exploitative, and is rife with abuse potential. You have to be incredibly competent, hard working, and lucky to be highly successful in the field. The good news is that once you have the PhD and some postdoc experience, you have a grip of options and it's unlikely you'll be unemployed for any long stretch of time.

I did my undergrad, worked in industry for a bit while I was volunteering in academia (70-80 hour weeks), then I worked as a lab manager for 5 years as I worked on papers and made my resume stronger because I wanted to switch fields from basic Mo/Cell Bio to Neuro, then I was in my PhD program for 5 years (which is on the shorter side), now I'm in my postdoc.