It can be extremely expensive in opportunity costs, unfortunately.
(Belief that you have opportunities, and motivation to take them, is very valuable. You can't just tell people this though, humans don't work like that)
My grandfather had a collague, who build a fast-breeder reactor in germany. Then the political climate changed and the reactor- brand new was deconstructed, and the whole thing reverted to a grass-farmland.
Noting but memorys to show for it.
Building that reactor isn't just a job. That kind of a job generally has a future/career. You would learn so many things on the way you will likely land a better job sooner or later.
One of things that I keep saying to my younger cousins that pretty much everything I built at the start of my career in programming doesn't exist now.
All that remains is me, and along the way I've gathered skills.
Video games don't give you this.
I had a friend whose brother would go to work and come home and play video games every day. That was literally it. Work, pay rent, game, eat sleep. I watched him repeat this cycle when we were hanging out. He didn't even have much to say most days.
The hikomori in Japan are already adopting this terminal frugality en masse.