Anyone going into the trades for money is going to be fucking miserable. The pay is nice but the pay is nice for a damn good reason. You will have no time, be perpetually tired, and wind up working in some really shitty conditions. Also a lot of that money will constantly be getting spent on tools. Sure most companies provide their techs with some tools and a stipend, but that stipend is never enough and you’ll wind up wanting to replace most of the provided tools with your own anyways once you find ones that work better for you.

If you’re going to get into the trades it better be because you like working with your hands and beating your head against brick wall problems. In that regard though going from software to the trades isn’t that weird of a move. I’m a tradesman now but I nearly got my bachelor’s in Computer Science. I loved how coding made me use my brain. I only dropped out when I got a desk job and realized that I wouldn’t be able to stand working a desk job. In the trades I get the same intellectual fun without having to sit at a desk all day.