I don’t think the high paying job = big stress correlation is as strong as you might think. Sure a few places are known for bad work life balance but (especially if you are employed in Europe) I would guess many big companies offer better WLB than startups - in fact, I’m sure the pace might be “too slow” compared to smaller companies in many teams.
There are plenty of valid reasons to not want to work at big tech co’s, but if you’re discounting it for expected stress level alone I’d do a bit more research as I don’t think it’s as true as you think. Obviously read reviews of Glassdoor/Blind to get a sense of the company you’re applying to…