Partially true.

One year at DL one of the highest paid pilots was a NYC 88B who made close to half a million. He commuted (from the midwest) and did a normal line's worth of flying a month.

LCA buddy bid, drop most or all of the month for full pay, GS 3 or 4 normal trips = triple pay.

There are other ways to game it and some of the 350 millionaires are commuters. You can even roll thunder on reserve as a commuter and even as a somewhat junior commuter to reserve by back loading the thunder instead of front loading it.

Commuting is extremely doable and the angst is 90% psychological and self imposed.