OK, re the commute: I commuted 2 hours (door to desk) each way for 9 years to stay living with my OH rather than move. I was lucky: the university I was working at had a pretty good system of buses meeting the trains from the main city where many of its students lived, and we lived within a 5 minute walk of the local metro to make the connection to the mainline train.
I sometimes did 6 days a week, sometimes 2-3 days a week although that was when I ran a Womens Studies MA that we taught in the evening, until 9pm I'd always get a taxi home from the main station home on those nights.
I was on a teaching/research contract at SL level, rather than a management role, although just about to be Head of Department when I left.
Pros and cons:
Living NOT in the same place as your students is very relaxing. I have a much shorter commute now, but it's so I don't live near my students. I deal with enough of their mess (I despair of how some of them are brought up!) day to day: I don't want to have to talk to them in the supermarket when I'm not at work ...
When I did my long commute, I tended to spend every Saturday pretty much sleeping!
But, I got a LOT of work done on the main train journey (90 mins) -- I used to work going to work in the morning (train at 7:20, lucky I'm a lark) and read for pleasure going home at 8pm. Or if I had marking, it was marking both ways. I was pretty disciplined about that.
I find even now, some years later, if I have some tricky or tedious reading (examining a PhD for example) I schedule it for a longish train journey. I am in the habit of thinking really well on trains. In the Quiet Zone, if some entitled selfish arse doesn't think s/he is above the rules. And I DON'T log on to the WiFi!!
But -- and it's a big but, when I commuted regularly, I was commuting AGAINST the main tide of commuters and I ALWAYS got a seat (usually a table). I think if that hadn't been the case, I would have found it much more stressful.
People didn't realise I didn't live in the awful, provincial satellite town in which the university was located. I thought that was good -- I worked recently at a place with a number of commuters, and it is very annoying when they can't help in the inevitable need to cover stuff at short notice. Very annoying as I think commuting is a personal choice, and others shouldn't have to carry the can for a colleague who won't/can't contribute as part of the team.
That said, if they're careful & thoughtful to show willing in other ways, it's fine.
Re money and pensions: my personal take on this is that you have to weigh up the costs & benefits in ways other than simply financial. That's why I despair of young women saying they "can't afford" to work because of the cost of childcare yes, childcare may be more than your pay, but that's only for a few years, and the long-term benefits even if just calculated financially outweigh the costs. The main long-term cost/benefit seems to me to be the opportunity cost (that may be the wrong accountancy term) the long-term cut in income one suffers from being out of the workforce. I happen to think that's significant (although I was widowed very young, when my DS was 3, so I really really believe in the advice "Never give up your job")
So, in your situation, you might think about the longer term benefits of the short term costs of this post. I'm a professor, on a lot more than you say you're in the ball park of, and I don't do a management job at te moment (had my share of HoDing). To me, "senior" roles start at Dean level, and at my place, that's when one starts to earn that famous "six-figure" salary (sorry to use such a vulgar term). At the moment, I've got too many books to write to want to do that sort of job, but I'm looking at it for the last 5 years in the run up to retirement.
I pay extra on my pension anyway (being widowed early made me really financially cautious) so I suppose I'm constitutionally one of those people who tends to look 5 years ahead, rather than living for the day.
Anyway HTH