Most likely because internal value is associated with salary and worth. It's very difficult to change that when society determines your worth and skills by the salary that you get.
His partner is apparantly also highly ambitious and I don't think relationships work with one partner being all about watching the stars and another super driven. Add a Phd to that which is long years invested as well and it's pretty much that you have a choice but you really don't have a choice.
This just screams depression to me. You have dedicated so much of your life to CS and now dream about meditation and learning about things for fun.
It may be worthwhile also to think about why started your Phd in the first place. What did you find so fun back then. Just trace to the past and find your initial reason and try to chart a path from here to what problems you want to work on.
Best cure for that is "treat others as you would want yourself to be treated". In this case I would really appreciate it if someone told me that my idea wasn't novel at all, sucked or that I was charging exorbitant fees for some minor improvement of my productivity.
A lot of times in life, kindness doesn't look like kindness.
Luxemburg junior salary average is 36K, take home around 2300. 1300 for rent and food you are left with 1000 euros.
Germany is where startups valued at $25bn and $45bn (Zalando and Klarna) are paying less than $100k for 10 YoE with >40% income tax.
Please let's not discuss already obvious things though I agree that Switzerland is better in terms of salary and taxes.
As per your own company you are using anecdotal evidence. Ageism in tech is very well-known and pretending it does not exist is not going to fix antyhing.
I don't see any evidence Europe being better for older folks. On top of that salaries are really really low in Europe.
Unless you are in the US and are going to graduate university at 22-23 best to forget about a career in STEM. Not worth the effort and time. Milk has a longer expiry date than a STEM worker who's perceived over the hill late-twenties or early thirties.