When I think about wealth and quality of life, I'm usually trying to eliminate the mundane in my personal life without even thinking of the "cost". I can afford healthcare, and car maintenance.....but I'm not at a level where I can keep a personal assistant on-call 24/7 to sort through my mail and then go buy groceries even if I want them at 2am or something. It's interesting you mentioned spending a "huge sum" on organic groceries....I think I eat decently well but I live in Japan where adequate-quality food in adequate portions doesn't bust your wallet, especially if you have a USD income.
Until I can just tell someone "I have identified a problem. Make it go away, these are your restraints and constraints in finding a solution." I will still consider myself a peasant, no matter how much grass-fed beef or how many Swiss watches (just bought my first... a used limited-edition Edox) I can afford.
One of the biggest differences between those salary levels is the housing they enable. 200k salary will allow for owning a home in most places (in the US, at least), while 50k will not. From there flows a lot of other things, like crime/safety, schools (if you have kids), etc, and even can improve your example: 200k can get you a place closer to work with a shorter commute, even if some of it still is spent in rush hour.
Downvotes on this are weird, it’s just basic math (the deficit bar in 2025 is way lower than the deficit bar in 2021). I get FoxNews thinking math is a liberal conspiracy, but not HN.