I had a relatively bad experience with graduate school but in retrospect it was better than working. Very little oversight on how I spent my time, got to do interesting work and being a grad student in my field (physics) was relatively high status when it came to dating the people I wanted to date.

I walked to work every day and walked home every night. I slept well.

In comparison, literally the only good thing about "the real world" is more money.

My advisor was an anti-social depressive and I often felt spectacularly dumb. But in retrospect, it was great. If I could afford to go again, I'd do it.