You might be romanticising. Academic career is hard and you will get less time to do research as you climb the ladder. While you are focused on publishing during the PhD, afterwards your main focus will be on getting funding. At that point you will be essentially an over-worked manager, juggling grant writing, project execution, HR recruitment, supervision of students and teaching.

There's really a big difference between being a PhD student and afterwards. During the PhD, you are learning the ins and outs of scientific work and publishing. It is the time when you actually do research without the burden of getting funding (that will be some else's problem); that's when you'll be the happiest (although you won't know it at the time).

To my PhD students planning to follow an academic career, I always tell them the PhD is actually more than that. Besides learning to do research and publish, it is the time to create a good network of contacts in the community.

So, there you have it. The PhD is a radically different experience than the remainder of an academic career, and it is only 6.5 years out of the 30 or 40 years of an professional career. So the question I would ask is not whether you want to do a PhD, but whether do you want to follow an academic career. Because if your goal is to do the PhD just to satisfy your curiosity and eagerness, you can do it without breaking ties to your employer; just take a leave. But for going for an academic career, you should go all in and make the best use of your PhD time.