What about academics? If you're insanely driven and want to distinguish yourself, you could do well there. You sound like professors I have had, funny and engaging and always driving for the next Grant or paper. The CS at my decent state school was total garb, they are still stuck on Java and PHP, my worst professor there is now dept chair because they have no good options. You'd do tremendous good in academics, or hell even in non profits or open source.

If you're driven for distinction and excellence and a middling level of income and wealth is ok, I think the impact could be big!