The idea that FIRE means you have to live "like a pauper" is ridiculous and not very well thought out. If you are creative, you can live extremely well. My fiance and I moved into our RV and traveled full time for the past 2 years while paying off all of our debt and saving 80% of our income after that. If you have any ounce of critical thinking and creativity, your joy in life does not equal how much you spend.

To be honest, the criticism that you should live your life while you can is exactly why most people pursue FIRE. If you honestly think that working for 10 years to be able to be financially free is crazy, you should think about how that compares to the standard narrative "work 45 years to then retire".

People that FIRE correctly will have actual financial security early in life, while most Americans (70ish percent) will continue to live paycheck to paycheck their entire lives no matter how much they make, and then depend on Social Security scraps to sustain them. Surely, that isn't the better route.