It's not a beat down; you need to, and indeed accomplished, one type of analysis. There are many many ways to approach the decision (assuming a decision is on the table). Each approach may yield a different result as a family orders its priorities. The only way to reach a fair decision is to look at the potential results (the known unknowns; leaving aside the unknown unknowns) and act accordingly.
From my perspective in life, a paycheck is only a source of irritation, never the deciding factor on whether I like the job. In the case of proball, the conditions of employment are so different from a regular job (e.g., the inability to change employers even if you like the career chosen, the inability to leave without severe economic penalty, the fact that you get paid for only half a year but spend for an entire year) that the conditions under which milb players labor need to be considered - indeed may even trump most other considerations.
TPM constantly points this out - and I believe she is right; unless you have a family member who has gone through the milb system, it's tough to really really understand the life of the player. What most see are the performance (game time) and that overwhelms what was sacrificed to get to game time (time, money, alternate opportunities).
It's a very personal decision highly dependent upon each player (how good, how smart, how ready, alternatives available, opportunity costs lost, do you want to hedge the results or okay to put so much on a lottery).
There is no black and white; it's fifty shades of grey.