I am in the academic circus since 20 years, in my opinion everything more than a masters degree is an expression of ones interests and a way of life: Its great and allows you to do things that only a few people on the planet are allowed to do and once you drop out you just get a normal job.

It takes a few years to bridge the income gap between you and the people that went towards an industry career immediately, but you got to climb around in the large hadron collector when it was not running and have lots of stories about strange British professors.