Completing a top-N PhD or MD isn’t a central example—or at least not sufficient for being a central example
As an aside, if you’re up for asking your friends/colleagues a potentially awkward question, I’d be interested in seeing how much of my own anecdata about EAs with PhDs/MDs replicates in your own (EA) circles (which is presumably more Oxford-based than mine). I think it’s likely that EAs outside of the Bay Area weigh the value of a PhD/other terminal degrees more, but I don’t have a strong sense of how big the differences are quantitatively.
As an aside, if you’re up for asking your friends/colleagues a potentially awkward question, I’d be interested in seeing how much of my own anecdata about EAs with PhDs/MDs replicates in your own (EA) circles (which is presumably more Oxford-based than mine). I think it’s likely that EAs outside of the Bay Area weigh the value of a PhD/other terminal degrees more, but I don’t have a strong sense of how big the differences are quantitatively.