Forgetting for a second what work someone finds more valuable (or the potential to increase your income or other benefits (social status perhaps) there is one big difference.
A consultant has to constantly come up with new business. Patrick's skills may be in demand now and not in demand 5 years from now (unless he morphs into something else valuable).
One thing I've never liked about consulting (that I like about BCC and AR, in general) is that you are constantly on the hunt for new consulting business. Even if the pipeline is full now you only have so many hours. A missed opportunity to consult (because you don't have the time) can't be fulfilled in the future. It's perishable.
Using the example of a mechanic that earns 200k in which the experience matters and the thing he is useful at doesn't go out of style (2 "ifs") the mechanic doesn't have to wake up in the morning and wonder where the next gig is going to come from.
You say that success isn't relative but just two posts up you said 200k is in the top 3% of earners in the US. Why did you limit that to the US? The same logic that made it sensible to restrict your comparison to the US applies to tptacek's observation.
I chose the US because I had those statistics on hand.
If we widen the comparison to the entire world, Patrick will be even more "successful," considering the prevalence of poverty in the world.
So yes, he is not only more successful than the overwhelming majority of people in this nation, he is also spectacularly more well-off than most people in the world.
Scale, a mechanic can only ever provide so much value in fixing a car which is owned by a single customer. Improving a software businesses conversions by 1% might provide more value than a mechanic can in a year of fixing cars.
