Ever see someone fail to eventually become a STEM TT faculty at an R1 if that’s the one and only career they want?

Has anyone ever seen a case where a reasonably qualified PhD student in STEM failed to eventually get a TT position at a decent R1/R2 for reasons completely outside of their control?

Even if it takes a few postdocs, even if you have to compromise a little on the location? If that’s the ONLY career you are interested in and will not give up for any intrinsic factors, like money, work life balance, personal life, etc., will those people eventually get that R1/R2 TT role?

If yes, how much did they have to sacrifice before they finally got a position they were happy with? If no, what were the reasons that they failed against their will? Did they ever recover as a person? How?

I know the market is bad, but I hear a lot of people talk about the market online like they are being forced out against their will and it scares me, but also doesn’t quite seem that dire to me in real life. It seems like people get jobs. Is it honestly that bad (again, in STEM), if you know exactly what you want, you’re not interested in anything else, and you’re willing to sacrifice and be patient?

If you truly cannot imagine doing anything else with your life, like cannot even imagine it, is that existential fear of having no career really justified in that scenario?

EDIT: I didn’t mean to say R1 in the title—R2s are completely fine also. My question was just meant to be about TT positions at research-intensive schools.