It is sometimes a gateway to being a public intellectual and having a great deal of people care not only about your clinical work, but also the contours of your niche in practice. Oliver Sacks, Paul Farmer, Karen Horney, Gabor Maté, and Jonathan Metzl are all physicians—but their work expands considerably beyond their patient interactions. Even when those interactions are foregrounded, they are often the vehicle through which they champion some underlying humanitarian cause. They write books, give talks, shape care. It is also one of those jobs you can't really "set out" to do: nobody can promise you that the public will care about your particular cause en masse. It makes the success stories feel even more impressive.
It's something you do because it in some way inspires you to continue living, not because you think you're going to end up rich. There's a lot that can go into your equation of what makes something worth it, but consider that lifestyle creep and hyperconsumption make it so that we are never really happy; always reaching—you can clear a million a year and still want the private jet or the time to enjoy all of the money you're making.
In the end you can absolutely take on a utilitarian view of your own identity and do whatever you think most people would find most impressive, which of course in our hypercapitalist society would be the most highly compensated. You will find that in your final analysis, who you really are is the common denominator throughout your consciousness and you will never be happy unless you do what you really want to do, for your own selfish/irrational reasons.
It's easy to assume you want for yourself what others want for you. I find it is harder but ultimately more rewarding to look inward and ask yourself.
