I've been flying professionally for over 26 years, and I still enjoy it. I spent 22 of those years in the RAF. In that time I was given the opportunity to command a Hercules in all its roles, become an instructor (eventually the chief instructor) at a University Air Squadron, returning to the C130 as an operational (tactical and air-to-air refuelling) instructor and display pilot. I left the RAF in 1998 to join Virgin, where I flew 747s for 4 years, converting last year to the A340 (300 and 600). While I am still a First Officer, and thus have far less responsibility than I did in the RAF, I still find the job stimulating and enjoyable and I can, I hope, look forward to returning to a command in the not too distant future. I now have somewhere over 10,000 flying hours. I hope that qualifies me to answer the thrust of your question, though I won't do it point by point.
I have seen people from all walks of life and all motivations come into flying - indeed, I have interviewed and later taught many of them. There are those who feel that it's about status and reward, there are others who feel it's about professional satisfaction, there are yet more who just like aeroplanes. There are plenty, believe it or not, who just needed a job and kind of fell into flying through the military or another route, found they liked it and stayed.
Many of those who would like to fly never make it. Some fail medical or aptitude tests, some can't fly, some can't endure being in an aircraft! Many never get through the arduous examination phase, and yet more find that the never-ending round of CV-writing, 'phone calls, PFOs and failed interviews is too depressing to continue. Others simply run out of money. And we haven't even got to those who got the job yet!
After all that work, all those expectations, the reality of the day-to-day life of an airline pilot can seem to be a bit of an anti-climax. If you are lucky enough to have friends in other professions, you may well decide (as you have) that there's some greener grass elsewhere - outside aviation. It happens, though not that often. Most who succeed in getting their airline wings will stay in the job until retirement - but, this being an extremely cyclic and vulnerable trade, they may well have experienced the failure of a number of employers on the way!
This is a very stressful life on families. There are few airline flight decks where at least one of the pilots isn't divorced. The time away, the temptations in foreign resorts and hotels, with a young and attractive team of flight attendants (at least in my airline) lead to the inevitable encounters with all the emotional fallout that that implies. Many spouses just get fed up with their other half using home even more like a hotel than the kids do, and give up.
If you're getting the picture that the problems of life in this business aren't that disimilar to the problems in any other, good! The grass on any side of any fence is a continuously variable shade from brown to green. The shade changes with circumstances; it may be green enough for you, it may not. As Max implied, the people who love this job most are those for whom it's a vocation - they've got to do it, however they came by that revelation. They'll take all the problems of the industry, the effects on your health, the family strains, the gradually reducing status and rewards, and they'll come back for more. The rest mostly just accept that this is the life they've made and get on with it. Others, like you in your field, decide that their efforts may be better made elsewhere.
So, is it a good move for you? I'm afraid that only you can say! I, and many others, love it. You may not.
Scroggs