Hi there,

I may be able to contribute a bit of my experience on my PhD journey. I recently dropped out of my PhD after around 40% of work done.
I started my full time PhD programme while I have my full time job at the same time. Being a full time PhD candidate means I will have to follow the schedule of full-time programme which will need me to follow the milestones of a full time candidate and complete my research within 3-5 years.

When I first started, I was very motivated in conducting my research and writing papers for publication. My purpose of getting a PhD is mainly self-satisfaction. However, as time goes on, this commitment had become a burden to me as I will need to commit 4-5 hours on research, reading and writing every day after work. (I did the same thing during my Master's degree, I was working a full-time job and doing my Master's degree at the same time) At the end, it is really exhausting to me and I decided to quit.

I work in IT software development industry, a PhD doesn't really weigh much in my industry. If your industry doesn't really value PhD, you may want to think carefully. I am more leaning toward professional certificates in my industry. Those are definitely more valuable than a PhD and with significantly lesser commitment compared to a PhD.
I gotta say, I did not regret my decision (to drop out of my PhD), I am a lot happier than I was.
As in, not feeling guilty for spending too much time at eating dinner, not feeling guilty when spending more time with friends and family, not feeling guilty when spending more time to relax myself.. That's because a second I waste would be a second I lost in researching, reading and writing. I was too dedicated and eventually lost my balance there.

Your mileage may vary. If you have time for this commitment, and it is really one of your life goals, no harm trying. It is a journey of identifying what we don't know and how do we discover answers for it.

All the best.