> this idea that people should (or can) just leave employment, needs to stop
I don't think this applies when you are pulling down nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year - then I think you probably have quite a lot of freedom to just walk out the door anytime you want.
It doesn't matter what your salary is, if you've got a big old mortgage and a wife and kids then losing your income is really scary. What if the job search takes longer than you expected? What if it takes much longer? He's already remote working, that massively narrows down his options. It's not as simple as just "get another job" and every day he doesn't have a job, bills are piling up.