After what happen in 2008 to the stock market due to the mortgage crisis's, companies were pulling money out of their profits to support pensions. So one by one companies froze there pensions..... and offered payouts. Now some people needed to cash in their pension's by taking the payouts, others are looking forward to pensions of barely 10 yrs due to job hopping and layoffs. Lots of people paid mortgages, college tuition's and just growing a family in the middle class. (30k to 50k not much to save there with 2 kids) Living and saving some times doesn't work to well together in the middle class......
This is a topic of endless discussion and no consensus as far as opinions. You touched on a number of issues. According to every survey I've ever read, most people simply never did anything in the way of financial planning until it was too late (in their 50's). Few households set up budgets, tracked their expenses, tried to maximize savings, learn to invest, etc. I am definitely in the group that lacks empathy as I saw, all through the decades, so many people simply purchase too much house, too much car, overspend on unneeded items, eat out too much, etc. and never thought about retirement. And surveys back this up --- not just my anecdotal experience. Surveys have shown that only 1 in 3 or 4 adults have a modicum of financial literacy.
Then, of course, there is a percentage of people who did 'everything right' and got wiped out from medical expenses, or layoffs that took their savings away and perhaps never got a job paying their old wage and benes. Then there is another percentage of people who just don't have the ability (or 'werewithall') to get a good paying job. Another percentage didn't do family planning.
So, everyone is in a different position with a different perspective. Meanwhile, wife and I retired strictly on investments at age 56 and 54 respectively, no pensions. I started investing in my 20's and I can't begin to make people understand how we lived in 'undesirable neighborhoods' in really crappy apartments to save money along with allowing ourselves, on the weekend, to only do one thing. Go to a movie, go out to eat, go to a bar with live music, go to a museum, etc., but we could not do more than one thing so we'd save money. We brown bagged it for lunch, learned to cook. We did this for years to get a nest egg to retire, and to save for a house. Can't feel sorry for those who did not make an effort.