This all happened to the players too. Plus they don't get to see their kids for a week or two at a time not just for a day. I get the working poor bit. I've done the factory horse racing track work as well. But nothing is as grueling as traveling from place to place every few days, getting to the hotel at 2am, being away from home for 4 months out of the year. The players do get compensated well but they earn it.
Even in my profession I could have made much more than I do now, not what the players make of course, but it just wasn't worth it.