I think you're on to something. I feel like a lot of people I know with Masters degrees in DC studied liberal arts and now work in academia, or like you said, non-profit or even government.

Those that work in Law/Medicine typically have beyond a masters degree and many that work in finance/STEM don't need any degree beyond a bachelors to get high-paying finance/tech/engineering jobs. Would actually make a lot of sense to me if most Masters degree were more intellectual/academic pursuits and less so about "Hey I just need to crank out this degree really quickly so I can be a _____ and make $250K/year"