the sexual harassment stuff can be pretty invisible if you aren't a target yourself

regarding the identity politics stuff, some people live and breath IP and their perception of untenable conditions would be unremarkable to me (e.g. a 22 yr old saying "that's so ghetto")

work-life balance is a deal-breaker for me, but in my early 20s maybe it wouldn't have been if i spent half the work day playing my favorite video game

It seems to be a common theme in the video game industry. There are so many people that are very passionate about video games to a degree that they will take a lower salary and worse working conditions than they could get coding for any other industry. It's passion exploitation.

Probably a combination of wanting to work on games, and if you make it through the gauntlet you get exercise a lot of power and reap whatever "rewards" may come with that. Maybe it's a similar mindset to enduring working at a consulting/law/finance firm hoping to make partner, etc.