If someone doesn’t love “pure math”, then they don’t love math. Like most people, they don’t even know what “pure math” is. If your teacher only got a masters, it’s probably because they couldn’t finish the PhD.

Realistically academia is a terrible career for any field. But it’s not like everybody in academia is a “rich kid”. Many people love their field or like teaching or have no choice, etc.

If you want to make money, then you need to serve capital, militarism, etc. and not education, not science, not truth. Sure, “actuarial science” is a great way to do that.

It’s the age of conflict between doing what capitalism wants you to do versus doing what you love, what is true, etc.