Consider that the type of people who are more inclined to accumulate wealth are the ones faced with this choice.

The people who'd rather strum guitars don't often find themselves in that position. So your observation is painfully anecdotal and not really useful.

I have some "relative" taste of it in that I'm a lot better off than the past 3 generations of my family minimum. But I was still far from what I consider "wealthy" even within the tech community, let alone to the country at large. I didn't feel it fundamentally changed how I approached finances outside of being more willing to splurge on some tech (something I've always wanted to do) after I put away 20% for savings.

But that's only one magnitude. Who knows, money corrupts for a reason.