don't get a PhD

the process is super stressful, the benefit is dubious at best. Tenure track faculty position is really good, as long as you can get, which is much much much much much harder than most people think. If you were not aiming for tenure-track position, which not only requires a PhD, but also a PhD from very good school directed by a very good professor with very good dissertation supported by very good publication.

depending on the job market. Everything you said is true provided you can get a truly PhD worthy job. There is a glut of PhD right now. The competition for PhD worthy position is ferocious to say the least. Too many people chase very few positions. You can't just look at the glamorous ones, you have to look at the odds and how much effort you need to invest into this whole thing that may work out but even more likely may not work out for you. Just like you can go around and tell everybody that acting is a promising career because Brad Pitt lives such a glamorous life. I know plenty of PhDs at their 40s still doing Postdoc work.

In short, it's very hard to get jobs that actually need PhD degree and the training you received in the process because there are so many PhDs out there. Yet it's hard to get regular entry jobs in your field because of the all too familiar excuse for rejection: you're overqualified. In any case, even if you did end up with an entry level job, you will wonder what's the point of spending 4-5 years toiling for your advisor for a degree you actually don't need for your job?

Yeah, it's nice to look at thing solely through the self-improvement angel, but reality is harsh, and most people don't have the luxury and the desire to spend 5 years of their lives improving themselves purely for the sake of improving themselves while still having to face the reality of fighting for jobs with people 5 years younger.