Doing translation work isn't really a career
Speaking as a psychology graduate who learned to code on my own and am now a full-stack developer working for a large multi-national company.
Someone might just as well say that doing programming work isnt really a career. Language services is a field of work like any other. The barriers to entry are admittedly low as theres demand for even low quality, low pay work, but as a translator becomes more proficient, they could just as well work for large companies, or start up a company of their own, and make a nice income.
You are right, sorry about sounding bias but what i'm probably saying is it's not really a technical career with much progression. As a developer you can progress through a more defined path being a senior developer, team leader, manager, executive, etc.. While as a translator, i guess you could progress to being a senior, executive, and even start your own company, it seems less likely and the skill set is limited.
Another argument would be that a good translator can probably speak/read/write 100 languages but you could also have a good developer who design and code systems as well as speak/read/write 100 languages. I think you get my point.