Your answer is very detailed.
Certainly chess can be a great satisfaction or a waste of time if you do not focus well your goals. Maybe everything would change if this sport was in the Olympic Games cycle. Chess players could earn more money and there would be more institutional support. But again, it would not be something related to the game itself, it is a social and economic perception. Soccer players make absurd amounts of money but if it were different, obviously you couldn't make a career out of it
The deal with chess is that very few people in the world can make a living just playing tournaments.
But it's not that bad at end you know, the wired needs more professionals, doctors, engineers, teachers, etc...