I don't doubt that you made a right choice for yourself, but it's not what this is about.I am already there (+40) and understand very well the importance of time. But I see no connection with daytrading. I daytrade, sometimes the whole session, sometimes only 30 minutes, and sometimes I take a day, a week or a month off.
Daytrading gave me the opportunity to have a lot of free time. I don't have a job anymore as I don't need one, I travel a lot (and can even work then if wish). None of this would have been possible for me as an investor as I would need at least 100 times more capital to get where I am now. And it would have taken years and years extra to get my financial freedom. So I would have lost the precious time you speak about all the time.
But I agree that my story is probably different from other stories. Each story has his own best solution. It can be daytrading, it can be investor.
I have so much free time that I sometimes trade just to kill the time. I also continue to study to improve my trading. I need an intellectual challenge to keep my brain healthy and active.
at one point you are comparing trading job to other jobs
at another point you are comparing trading returns (income) to investment returns (income)
this is not about either one, it is not about what should one do to have most income or time flexibility.
The point I was making is: calculating ROI on capital for investment is fine, but comparing "ROI on capital" between trading and investing is like comparing apples and oranges. That's all that I'm inferring.