This is such a silly argument. Grant money isn't free, it needs to be worked for, and it pales in comparison to the payout of being a corporate scientist.

There's literally no person out there who goes "Welp, I just spent 4-8 years accruing debt and learning a specialized field. I could work in pharma or food science or for an oil company (and if those don't fit, there's always GE) and earn a beefy, steady paycheck with benefits. Instead, I'm going to pursue self-directed science, since that sense of discovery and pursuit of new knowledge is what drew me to science in the first place. I'm going to apply for grants, and tons of them. Despite having graduated, I'm going to keep spending most of my time writing essays in the mere hopes of obtaining funding. Instead of earning a salary and benefits, I'm going to have to fight for each payout. I will have to convince people with access to more money than I will ever have that not only is a line of scientific inquiry worth investigating, I'm the one who should be paid to investigate it. My skillset led me to being a scientist, and yet I have to continuously participate in hustle culture and use social skills to earn a living. And I'm doing all of this instead of taking a cushy job at Phillip Morris or BP or Post where I don't have to constantly worry about how I will get paid when the current project is finished. And I'm doing it all for the money."