Considering that most skilled tech work generally makes plenty to live on, lots of us don’t optimize for maximum salary (or want a “salary” at all).

And “risk” isn’t something that gets shown to you in an excel spreadsheet and then rolled on a die when you start a project. It’s something that you assess for yourself, from very little data, and with your own particular risk tolerance.

With all that in mind, choosing to work in an unauthorized industry is no different than working in any other industry: startups, fintech, enterprise, whatever.

You do it because you like what it represents, or who you work with, or the way it feels, etc; or because you don’t feel like you have other choices for whatever reason.