Ever since I was a kid I realized I have a knack for maths. My kid has it too btw. He walks through second-grade math with the effort of picking feathers while pretending they're weightlifting (realized early any effort to win a battle is rewarded with more, harder battles). But it's a different story when they start to push you into competitive territory. Math Olympics that is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mathematical_Olympiad (The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. A few years ago another one was held some 500 meters from my apartment). It's taken very seriously here and those good at it are held to higher regard and status than sports olympics.
While it's tempting to ignore everything else and just think of yourself "I can do it, I can be THE BEST and beat all these hundreds of horribly well prepared guys willing and capable to do Anything (like me) to win a fight". I tended from early age to add probability to computing an average. So if 1000 Math Olympics guys are competing for a job, my statistical chance to win that particular job is 1/1000. Therefore if a quant job pays 2x-3x the "average" job, and there's 100 guys on average competing for it, the market value of that job for me is far lower than picking garbage from the street.
The ridiculous part is being offered to work for fewer money as a "quant" for some ridiculous bank. It's not just MV = SALARY / WORK and they are looking for someone who does the least 2 * WORK (developer and mathematician). They are also multiplying that by the supply of suckers willing to take that job. Sure at $50k they can't find a monkey that can also count, but raise it to $60k and suddenly those bushes have 1000s of eyes looking at you.
It's a really sweet gig. Getting paid $50K+ per year to sit on your ass in a climate-controlled office performing zero actual work per day. Become a roofer in Florida if you wish to feel better about yourself. Otherwise, quit yer bitchin' and take that "smart" route.