In my opinion by reading a lot of what and how your write, the words you use, to me you appear to have a substantial education. Me? I made it through life with just a GED, knowing how to find things, and developing a street education by watching what goes on around me while out and about.
Income? I certainly don't come anywhere near the 100k a year mark that you mentioned. I do make about 42k a year from 2 types of retirement incomes. I'm paid whether I sit at home 24/7 or go out and do something. I own my home, own 3 trucks and a car, and share my home with 8 cats. I can count on both hands the number of people I'm good friends with, one hand is people in law enforcement. Despite what many may think or have heard, most law enforcement officers are really good people once you get to know them. However like anything else, there's always a few bad apples in any group of people.
As I've stated before, I like to go dumpsterdiving as a hobby. It's an adventure, a treasure hunt, I never know what I'll find.
As far as "damage"? I really don't know. The only answer I can come up with is dumpster diving is pretty much an "equal opportunity" activity. My opinion is being motivated just to "go out and do it" "to search" while keeping within the law and keeping personal safety in mind.
Besides finding good stuff, the most beneficial part for me dumpster diving is the physical and mental activity, to walk, think, explore, meet people, and study what I've found and figure out what's wrong with it and if it can be repaired.
The majority of my knowledge of how to repair desktop and laptops I learned from troubleshooting what I've found, and doing online research.
Hope this makes some sense...