pay and prestige are two of the main drivers for kids to enter this field, when both are diluted, you no longer attract the top prospects which also dilutes the brand of the company. it's a self-fulfilling circle. GS can say they have all these harvard, Stanford, princeton kids working there - they become sought after from clients because they supposedly have the brightest people working for them, and when these kids can say they work at the elite GS, with all the other kids from the ivy's, and that hey got one of 200 openings that year, they benefit from the prestige factor as well.
like i said, we have a different idea of what rationalizing is.
where there are options, you rationalize, where there are no options, there are logical reasons for the status of said choice.
making the choice to work in high finance has an unavoidable entry, if you dont like that entry role, you cannot stay in high finance, thus a logical reason to stay.
making the choice to have a man, even a rich man, has multiple paths - when one is unsatisfactory, you can rationalize (make up illogical) reasons to stay or you can go and still find another.