If a person doesn't see a way out of slaving at or near minimum wage till they retire, even a moderate windfall of a couple million would completely replace their lifetime earnings and give them the freedom to pursue their passions (be it a family, surfing, painting, etc) while they're young and healthy enough to enjoy doing so.

I tend to agree with your point for larger sums like a billion dollars, but maybe you're really passionate about the potential for EVs to positively impact our growing climate problem and need an enormous pile of cash to get that off the ground. People are complicated.