The infinite runway is the key point of "ramen profitable", not comparison with market wages. The latter differs enormously between a founder who just dropped out of college versus one who's switching out of a highly successful position in mid-career, but that doesn't make a difference to the startup's likelihood of success.

And, even though the difference in lost market wages can be relatively giant, it's still negligible relative to the potential of a startup to create something new and incredibly valuable and to change the world.