razerzej

The claim that SLS will be 100 times more expensive than multiple equivalent (or superior) options by ~2025 sounds hyperbolic. Source(s)?

At what age do you project you'll be able to retire from either your full-time job or the homestead? Based on your comments, you're putting in 75-100 hours a week of work, at least some of which is physically demanding, with little sleep to allow for recovery. Your body will not become more resilient over the next ~10 years.

Without digging through every comment, I'd guess that your land is valuable enough to serve as a retirement fund, but that you'd prefer homesteading over millwrighting.

I personally have never played a TTRPG but know about D&D through pop media.

I'm assuming by "pop media" you mean something along the lines of Stranger Things. If you'd like to see what actual play can look/sound like in-depth, there are hundreds of streams and podcasts to choose from. Critical Role is far and away the most popular, but it can be a bit much for some people-- the cast is all professional voice actors, it's pretty rules-heavy, and the streams are ~4 hours long. The Adventure Zone podcast (my re-introduction to D&D) is a riot if you're into their style of humor. Dimension 20 on Dropout features Brennan Lee Mulligan (the best living DM, IMO).

I wish I played this with friends in high school but it was way out of my radar

It's not too late to get started! I played D&D a bit in high school and college, then took a ~25 year break before establishing my first campaign 5 years ago. I now run two ongoing campaigns and play in another.

TTRPGs in general, and D&D in particular, are more popular than ever. You can definitely find a table! If your friends aren't into it and you can't find a group in your area, online tools like Roll20 have made remote play practical and engaging. Check out /r/lfg (Looking For Group) if you'd like to give it a shot! (Don't give up if you come across a bad DM or players, or if the game suddenly disbands without notice. There are good groups out there.)