Seeing the false dichotomy is difficult.
Ask my former peers at work - security starts with a net worth around 2.5 million. I'm confident at least two of them hit that, several years ago. They're still working. Hard. Health destroying levels of stress and hours. This is not world changing work. They are trapped by mental constructs.
We had one leader die in the office. Late 40's. Heart attack. One of my former peers ended up in a medically induced coma for weeks. The stress of on call support caught him. Poor sleep. Drinking to cope. It adds up. He was never the same.
The golden handcuffs are real. Those guys might have more options than my Barista FIRE friend on paper. In practice? Their life is headed down a specific, linear path. Every year, it locks down more firmly.
Within that context, the equivalence of money and security feels obvious. One confuses robustness for resilience, but never has cause to question the paradigm.
Even now - I'm stressed to see my conservative financial plan running within parameters. The safety nets are working as designed! But what if they get used up??? Then what will I do? Because my net worth isn't growing by 10%+ per year, my options feel constrained. Poor me. As if I don't have a 10+ year runway, should things fail.
The Barista FIRE path can challenge these misconceptions much sooner, before they become a core part of someone's identity. My friend was living an anti-fragile life, long before we knew the term.
One thing I don't like about the categories, is they draw false lines in the sand. During accumulation, retirement feels like a point in time decision. Past that, the evidence otherwise becomes undeniable. All the number does is give someone permission to try their options. In most cases, they've been available all along.
Unlike @thrifty++, I have some regrets from my FI path. I would have benefited from less focus. My heavy specialization made the world very tolerant of a narrow mindset. I don't think that served me. I spent a lot of time unnecessarily unhappy, fixated on my arbitrary line in the sand.