Yes, definitely. I am not in a position where I recruit anyone, nor do I hope to be, I just finished my PhD. But there is a significant portion of students who will go ahead with a research career no matter what you tell them. This is partly due to a lack of alternatives (in some fields in particular eg for life science students for example), and partly due to the irresistable cachet of academia for some. I think some people also have a degree of sadomasachism, and will fly towards the flames again and again.

Science is pretty difficult frankly, especially these days. Sure science is worth doing, and can be quite rewarding, no doubt. But I can't quite understand the popularity. Writing papers is particularly painful, again I can't understand why there are so many papers being written, it is torrential. As others have noted, this is not the same as actual progress. But lately I have noticed something telling about several leading researchers in my field, people who have made it in every sense of the word, work at the top institutions, regularly publish stunning research in Science, Nature. They have been moving to the pharmaceutical industry in significant numbers. This tells you, basically, that academia sucks for everyone. This is also my impression from talking to people who have entered research in the last 15 years. The older researchers seem happier. Perhpas it is the pay scales that scale with seniority, or just survivorship bias.