My dad was an orthodontist. He missed the glory days over the past 15-20 years in terms of comp. But when he retired, he essentially gave his practice away. He found someone willing to take on his patients to complete their treatments. My siblings were bummed he didn’t sell his practice. Problem was, people were coming to see him. Not his building (he sold that a number of years before he retired and rented it back). Or his staff. So with him out of the picture, there really wasn’t anything to sell. I viewed that more as an accomplishment than anything else. It was him. And he practiced long enough to have former patients bringing their kids to him. Parents typically make the decision more than the kids. But when his patients had the choice for their kids (and their money) they picked him.
To sell his practice, he would have needed to bring someone on 10-15 years earlier and transitioned it over. But he never had an interest in doing that.
No one knows what the future holds in terms of comp for any career path (or even ability to have a job in any given field). But I know a lot of current docs who are sending their kids to medical school.