T1 is a very extreme example. He seems to have no life, he plays the same game for 10-12 hours/day, he is pretty toxic, he seems to have few other interests and no social life...that is fine, he is an astute businessman but most other streamers aren't doing this. They play variety, they do IRL, they have social lives, they take breaks. Even xQc, another streamer who is notorious for 20+ hour streams every week, plays variety and goes outside...sometimes (he recently did an IRL stream at Universal).

So I think it is like a lot of entertainment: the job can be intense, there is often little separation between personal and private but the pay is generally pretty good. Even on Twitch which really struggles with promoting smaller streamers, there are people far down the chain earning $50k/year with relatively small communities. Is that better than a startup? No. But not everyone can move to SF or go to college either.

I don't think being swatted or harassed is that common either. If you are a big streamer and you leak where you live, then maybe...but it doesn't happen as much as it used to (xQc got swatted repeatedly this year, and someone broke into his house...it does still happen).

Also, Twitch chat is toxic but most of the negative comments are not serious. I understand why normies wouldn't understand that but part of the fun for (some) streamers is battling with chat. It isn't a very serious place.