It's a good option in the sense that you can make a lot of money in a relatively short period of time. And the main comment was right: you. And the main comment was right: you can meet a lot of different older people from a lot of different sectors. Consulting was a great way to develop my career.
Salary is one thing, but networking, experience, career advancement, etc., can all lead to a better future. Especially as a manager, the WFH sucks. It's difficult to bring in new people, build strong relationships with them, etc. First of all, work-life balance.
My schedules are much more manageable. Yes, I still have the occasional nighttime nights and crazy weeks. But they are exceptions, not the norm. I dedicate a full day with lots of breaks and I have my first mornings and afternoons off.
If additional benefits are the main reasons for keeping someone in consulting, consulting probably wouldn't be the long-term option for them anyway. If you do this because you want to be an FI, you won't find much consulting company. It's impossible to get the kind of exposure in industry, networking, and frequent flyer miles that a consultant gets as a full-time employee in one place. I don't think any of my colleagues want to finish their careers early (of course, many will feel like they've reached their career goal in their 40s or 50s, but wouldn't consider it an early retirement).
Consulting is a type of place with a 3-year average lifespan, with rapidly growing performance expectations. You have the long hours and trips of consulting, but you also have the bad culture of banking and customers despise you. I would dispute the validity of that, especially if you build offices, sectors, or service lines as a consultant at the partner level, but that stigma is widely assumed. It may or may not be fair, and it may not even be real, but a senior executive profile later on may be more attractive if you have created and changed businesses and have managed people for longer periods of time than you think consulting allows.
I did a 4-year degree in hard science (predoctoral program) and discovered that what I like about consulting is the flexibility. Consultants are also hired to A) come to the same conclusion that top management has already done, so B) someone to blame if everything doesn't work out. In addition, clients and headhunters knock on the door to fill positions in the industry quite frequently, while side changes to other consulting firms are much rarer. Meanwhile, after a few years, the reputational value of each incremental year at your consulting firm begins to decline (not zero or negative, but less every additional year).
