Thats not really a good analogy. Most working people over a 30 year period will have made like 500 to 700 thousand dollars and have nothing to show for it beyond surviving. If they are lucky they may have some equity in a home but a lot don't even have that.
They will also have lived lives of getting up in the morning and going to a job they hate, hardly taking a vacation and almost never have a chance to realize any kind of dream. I would not be so quick to feel sorry for someone like Dennis Hatch. Just the fact that we are on here talking about him puts him above most people.
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
Henry D. Thoreau
Most people names are not even known beyond their immediate circle for friends. They live, survive and die with three unread lines in an obituary, there are few exceptions. To have the chance to have done what Dennis has done in his life regardless of the financial rewards is quite something. Now or sometime soon he may wish to move on to a new phase of his life, but I seriously doubt he will or should have any regrets about his life as a pool player.
It is easy to wish we had done this or that in the past but the truth is, we are who we are at the time we are. That means that who you are today is not who you were then and we all change over time many times.
It may make someone feel superior to knock someone like Dennis due to his life choices. Those kinds of criticism often come from their own frustrations with their own lives regardless of their financial position. Money can't buy what Dennis has accomplished, he is exceptional.