HN tends to be ludicrously out of touch when it comes to wages/salaries.

Out of touch is right! Even in Manhattan you can easily live fine on $40k with savings left over, at least if you have no dependents or health financing problems (eg expensive health condition coupled with bad insurance). In most of the USA, a $20/hr job with benefits counts as a good job.

In many of the places where these truckers live, that's solidly middle-class wages, also. Costs are significantly, significantly cheaper when a good single-family home costs 80-100k.

Sure. But you can ship a truckload of boxes across the country. The driver part of the cost is a buck a box? Which is something sure but not a deal breaker.