As John Lennon told us; "I read the news today, oh boy, the English army had just won the war." Well, not really, that was the Soviets, but that headline wouldn't sell so well, and no one else would be reporting it that way.

I had a parallel experience in science. Research PhD: expected path was post-doc (maybe several), then obtain research grant, deliver to research institution as research assistant professor --> tenure track, blah blah. But I discovered I loved to teach and students thought I was unusually good at it. And so I followed my spirit and said "screw it" to the standard expectations. As your (and perhaps my) experience illustrates, we need a lot more of those nonstandard paths in all areas of human endeavor if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves. Just an opinion, of course.