Yes, it kinda doesn't make sense. You don't want to "retire". You want to work on the things you care about. There are jobs that pay poorly but are still very interesting. Retirement is what you do when you can't work anymore.

Traveling the world is fun but it's not incompatible with work. You just need to ask for long chunks of vacation, say two to four weeks in a row. If all you do is work a 40 hour work week then given the right schedule you still have half a day plus weekends left for leisure.

What people truly want is FU money. They want negotiation power.