Yes, you are right.
I am not sure why everyone keeps bringing up the average though.
You have to decide whether it makes sense for you to be somewhere, based on how much you can expect to make and what your quality of life will be.
What the average person makes does not matter except in an abstract sense that equitable societies are better in general (which is absolutely true).
> You must live in a very selective circle.
> These are the only two examples out of probably more than 100 developers I worked with.
People can be very careful about keeping professional life separate. There is a boat owners club in a marina I frequent, the vast majority of the members (out of about 200) are techies, it's a common hobby.
I know several that have a pilot license but only one who bought a plane, it's somewhat convenient to just rent every few months.