I want to be a research technician and may drop my PhD

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I'm a 5th year PhD student in the US studying Experimental Psychology with an accepted Master's from a different Experimental Psychology program. I've had a fairly rough grad school experience overall, which my older posts can elaborate on (no need to review them for the purposes of this post though). I'm currently living with my parents 4.5 hours away from where I'm doing my PhD because I'm done with dissertation data collection and my only in person commitments are for my fellowship and dissertation defense (whenever that happens).

After some discussions with others and knowing my limitations (e.g., poor abstract reasoning, poor verbal fluency), I've decided that I've wanted to be a social science research technician. I'm even open to becoming a social science research analyst as well since I recently interviewed for that position (but was rejected sadly) and was one of three who passed a competency test for that position.

Given that such a position wouldn't require a PhD, I'm strongly considering dropping from this program altogether now given the myriad of mental health, physical health, advising (my first PhD advisor dropped me), and financial issues this program's had all along. I've wanted my awful program experience to end by leaving it either after I got a job offer in hand or graduating from it.

Now that I've committed to a research technician or analyst position, I'm thinking that dropping is the best move despite working on my Results and Discussion sections. A lot of folks advise not dropping from a PhD because it burns connections (especially given my May 2025 graduation date), but what are the other potential consequences of leaving a PhD program for a technician position (should I get one soon working with my home state's vocational rehabilitation)? I'd like to know.

Furthermore, given that my graduation got extended (yet again) to May 2025 and the goalpost just keeps moving, I seriously want to drop from my PhD program even though dissertation data collection's done and I'm only working on the Results and Discussion sections. I don't have a job lined up yet, but I'm not sure how much that matters given how miserable my PhD experience has been for me. I'll also need to return $11k of fellowship money I got awarded last year that I haven't touched yet. Would it also be safe and/or advisable to drop from my PhD program at this point? If not, what can I do to give myself the motivation to try to finish? I've only worked on my dissertation for 1-2 hours a week this semester and have spent the majority of my time in recovery (e.g., Ketamine treatments my therapist recommended put me out 3/4 weeks of October). I still made decent progress, but my commitment is absurdly low because I know in the back of my head that I don't need to get a PhD given my goals at this point.

I'm also not including a leave of absence option in the poll given my university is one in the Michigan area that had a 50% enrollment decline in a decade alone. They're investing huge money in the medical school and are cutting the Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychology PhD programs right now, which means the 5 year countdown for students to graduate has begun now (legally, those who start a program that's going to be cut have to finish the requirements somehow). The School Psychology PhD program stopped admitting students and now only the I/O PhD program is left standing for now. A semi public meeting with students and faculty did say the university is committed to phasing out all Psychology PhD programs too. It's wild and that's why I never took a formal leave of absence and won't make that a poll option since there's only a "Yes" or "No" at this point. The more I wait, the more faculty will leave to the point I may not have a committee.

For those who think I should stick around, I'm also open to hearing what I could potentially do to get my motivation back because it's at an all time low.

A Phd. will or can , follow you for life . And can be used as a bargaining chip with future employers . For Wages .
You have done so much already, and if they are phasing out the Psyche dept school, You might benefit , by not having to drag all your school records to the next place you go, to complete the PhD.... Research sometimes is only operating for a limited period of time . On any one thing or condition . The idea , is to be able to have extra "good" credentials , any time you present for a job....Or the choice to not present them, might be yours too. To avoid the " over qualified" excuse for not hiring a person.
BTW: any special training/ knowledge to do the Research assistant job/ profession.?