Man. You are living in a bubble. There's a world outside software.
I was working in construction for 6 years as a civil engineer/manager. I have seen the breadth of society. From labourers who built buildings to HNI clients who bought and lived in them.
I moved to IT last year. Let me respond to a couple of your points.
"so an swe is expected to move to an expensive city with high travel and food expenses, scant housing options with landlords hiking the price 40-80%, work 8 hrs a day and sometimes even 12." --> really bruh? A civil engineer has to not only move to an expensive city but has to live in an overcrowded 1bhk house with 4 other colleagues to not go broke. He has to work 12 to 14 hours a day. 6 days a week. And if he works for a contractor, half a day on a Sunday too. This is the usual. And if there's a lot of work, you gotta work 16 hours a day. And no, you don't work in an office with AC. You work in the fkin 35 to 40 degree sun during the day and 15 degree nights with huge fkin mosquitoes trying to suck all your blood. And get paid 12. No not 12 lpa but 12k per month. And that's with one year experience. Of course, you still have to send money home.
I was lucky enough to not have to start with some of these as I had family in a city and a salary among the highest in my class. And that salary was 4.35 lpa. I still worked in the conditions I mentioned above.
To give you some more context on career growth, with 6 years of experience, I was paid 8.5 lpa. Which is considered decent in Bangalore. And you have freshers coming out of college earning fkin 20lpa. Or 50lpa if you look at this platform.
Remember I said I moved to IT? I started out in a fresher's role. For a pay of 10lpa. I was thrilled. It's been a year and I am making my first IT switch. I got an offer for 20 fixed plus 20 profit share mechanism.
I couldn't even dream of something like this in construction. The best you can hope for is a role of a project manager with 20 lpa after 15 yoe.