It's very important to be precise. Depending what country you're in, there could be full professors, assistant professors, associate professors, instructors, and other positions. Some of those positions might be well paid, but it's a safe bet that some of the others are not. So if you're looking at one full professor's salary and thinking that most other people with the word professor in their name make the same salary, depending what country you live in, you would be mistaken.
Actually wait a second, that's true in every country.
Here in the UK the average processor salary is £79k per annum. Which is more than double the average UK salary and that's something you can expect in many senior roles across various industries. These numbers are the median average.
There's also the issue of 79k being not really enough to live on in the US, considering recent inflation, the housing market, child care costs, medical bills.
Probably not: in lots of countries other than the UK, there isn't a job title "lecturer" and everyone who lectures in higher education is called a professor, whereas in the UK a professor is a very senior post, given only to very distinguished researchers who are well known in their field. It's not just a job, it's a mark of academic distinction that you don't lose on retirement, you become professor emeritus. A department might have 30 university lecturers but only two or three professors.