Diminishing ROI for Banking?

Most people here obsess over "prestige" and staying on "the path." Yet the traditional route of undergrad -> IB -> PE is well trodden, and the golden years (à la Wolf of Wall St./Liar's Poker) are decades in the past.

We are living in a new age where the proliferation of technology has created more efficient/less fragmented markets, leading to increased fee transparency and additional regulation cost. A majority of bankers are now commodities, scrapping to justify their existence. (Perhaps this is an exaggeration but things certainly aren't what they used to be.) Can we still justify slaving away for 80 hours/week given the diminished ROI of a banking stint?

For those who stepped off "the path" to pursue opportunities you deemed had better ROI for your time - how are things going? Any anecdotes/advice is much appreciated.