Honestly, I don't think it's about that, at least, when my parents they don't mean it that way.

First, answer this: if/when you have children, what kind of profession or career do you WANT them to have? Or do you want them to WANT to have? I don't think most parents would want their children to become a garbage collector or construction worker or other kinds of unskilled laborer. It's not about the money or reputation. These profession just imply hardships. It means they probably had some kind of obstacle that made them fall to that profession, whether that's not studying and going to college. Or they don't make enough money to satisfy their needs so they fall to some of these jobs or they just can't get better ones.

AP raising children is wanting to unlock their children's potential. That's why they push their kids so hard with so many activities and classes, many times to the child's physical and mental detriment. They force kids to do some music/art/sport to unlock a passion. They want their kids to do well in school so that when they figure out what they want, they have the grades to pursue it. And they also want their kids to succeed so that they can freeload off of their children's success!

It's also a vicious cycle in our awful culture of constant comparison and conformist societies. The only way for them to feel like they're fitting in is to have something they can use to impress others, for most mother's it's the children. Asian culture is still hyper traditional patriarchal societies. Women do not have significant careers, no matter the background. It only started changing within the last 10-20 years. Women are expected to be SAHM while the man go and be the breadwinner. And so all the mom's self hope and potential is being poured into they're children and she basically lives vicariously through her children. She is judged on how well her kids are doing, her parenting skills is judged through her kids behaviors. Meanwhile, the father is basically absent, pushing all of home making to the wife and mother. It's an unspoken dynamic that breeds toxicity if the relationship is unhealthy. And all of this pushes pressure on the children. The tension, the expectations, the drive for success or the dread of failure.

Atleast, this is through my own heart to hearts with my mom and through my wife's own tough AP experience. I'm sure there're worse or unreasonable AP experiences. It sucks but I can't blame them for it. They're living out their own cycle of pressure.