in my engineering field for decades, even outside academia. I took a 3 month sabbatical (working at a publicly held company) back in 2013 and my mentor took an 8 month sabbatical years before that.

Intel has long been known to have employee sabbaticals, and I think they might even be paid.

What's your problem? If you wait until you are old/retired to do any sort of significant traveling or learning or other such time-intensive experiences, your health may not allow it and it could be too late. You just personally hate traveling and learning and DIY home projects and family support and believe everyone else should hate those too?