Money is freedom. You can do a lot more projects that tickle your "true greatness and satisfaction" when you're not worrying where your next check is coming in.
When a person has a large quantity of money, they have the luxury to disregard money as a factor in their decision making.
That’s how I think OP is interpreting it, not as money is a panacea for a fulling life. But money enables you pursue many things that a person with little money can.
I know people with a large quantity of money who sit at home letting their teeth rot. I know people with limited means that are out every day living life to its fullest. We all have to "disregard money as a factor in our decision making" when it comes to happiness.
The point is that a person without money doesn’t have the luxury of sitting at home letting their teeth rot out while the person with money can, if they choose to, go out and live life to the fullest.
Money doesn’t help you make the best life choices but it expands the spectrum of possible life choices.
Very few people, even among the rich have "enough" money that they disregard money as a factor in their decision making. To a certain extent they actually consider it more because they are trying to figure out how to preserve what they have.
In my experience, that isn't completely true. Sure, as you get more financial committments, you start needing the money more.
However, having extra money makes so many things less stressful. When I was younger and poorer, car trouble was a huge stress. Did I have enough money to fix it? What was I going to cut out? Would I wreck the car, costing me more money, if I keep driving it?
Now, I just take the car to the shop and don't even think about it. Hungry and see a good restaurant? Just go. Get in a minor accident, or get a parking ticket? No big deal, doesn't ruin the day.
I mean, money certainly is still a factor in decisions, but there are a LOT of decisions that cost a small enough amount of money that you don't worry about it. Everyone has a level where, if things are cheaper than that, they don't worry about it; as you get more money, more and more things fall into that category.
Well sure, I think there's some figure about how increasing income up to $70k makes you happier and then it doesn't anymore, that seems about right in that it's mainly about being securely 'not poor'. Moving beyond that and in to the extreme wealth zone many are concerned about making their good fortune last, watching the markets everyday, that sort of thing.
It’s all relative. No amount of wealth can buy time or immortality, but having very little money means less choice in where you live, how you get from place to place, how you eat, how you dress, the medicines and treatments you receive when you are sick (if at all), and so on.
Moderate wealth certainly means more freedom than little to no wealth.
Edit: I just recalled a quora question a while back when somebody asked about the drawbacks of being a billionaire compared to a millionaire. One perspective was that while a millionaire could go for a Sunday drive in a nice car with the spouse and kids at the drop of a hat, a billionaire may have to schedule their transportation around security parameters and travel with bodyguards because their wealth can make them a target. So in some ways, too much money can make life less free.
I think you are confusing people who want to be free from working from someone they don't like with people who have an unhealthy relationship with money and/or life in general.
Freedom from financial worry and working for people you would avoid except for money is the sort of freedom most people don't have.
And while you might argue I don't know enough people with "money", I can assure you that isn't true. Its unfortunate some people with serious financial resources have an unhealthy relationship with money/life but that is far from everyone.
