Why is optometry so unpopular?
I'm a college undergrad very interested in optometry. It has so many attractive aspects: eyes, medical care, clean, non-surgical, work-life balance, strong employment, autonomy, low divorce rate. The only downside is that optometry has one of the worst ROIs in healthcare: an associate optometrist makes ~150k annually only with an average debt of ~300k. However, self-employed doctors make ~250k, which is still a strong ROI. The ROI is low without selling glasses and contacts.
I choose optometry primarily because of my deep interests in eyes. I'll be okay as long as income is sustainable for a living and I'm not aiming to be crazy rich like surgeons. It's likely that my family will pay all COA or at least a large part of it so that I'll take out a smaller portion of loans and costs won't likely be an issue. I'll try to open up my private practice in the future too. I'm mainly interested in specialty contacts and myopia control.
Is it worth to go into optometry? What can I do to maximize income in the future?