I've home educated, school educated and mixed educated, for a couple years all three at once. All forms have their pros and cons that vary with the context and choices available. I've also done support work with local home educators, currently a school governor, and some work with the local council around home education, mostly support from kids transferring in or out of home education and for older home educated kids accessing exams (they were running a programme just before COVID that has sadly since closed).
Many of those I know home educated at least in part because of an issue with the school, usually the child's issue with the school or school environment, though a few it's one of the parents who had an issue with the schools in the area when they attended. I think within the UK, at least the last data I saw on it, most home educators are through withdraw rather than philosophically from the start.
In my area, most children withdrawn to electively home educate return to a different school within a couple of years, especially at the key stage changes or through tribunals for specialist places, which can take years and often involve parents home educating for at least part of it. School quality and how schools meet the needs of children plays a major role.
I have seen parental anxiety play a role too, and it is mostly mothers, though I've seen a few fathers - had one who worried us having his email meant he would get hacked. Mostly this is in combination with other reasons like school issues, poor choices in the area, or another issue that the anxiety is kinda feeding off of.
Other reasons I've seen include just being able to do so and not seeing a reason not to, parents' poor opinion on the National Curriculum, preferences for another type of education, a family member's ill health and wanting the child to be able to spend more time with them while they can, parents being afraid of fines for a child who was avoiding school, parents who were encouraged to do so by the school the child had attended, being anti-exams,
I home educated largely because I felt able to do so, at least for primary, and could. The nail that pushed me to do so was for safeguarding reasons - my oldest child has communication struggles and was low verbal when he was young. When he was 3 in morning childcare, it turned out he and another low-verbal boy were being purposefully ignored and left out, and I decided I wouldn't put my kids back into that kind of setting until they could communicate clearly to me when there was an issue. Maybe parental anxiety played a role in this and over time this idea morphed into their father and I chose home education for primary, and my children make the choice once they reach secondary age. It's worked well for us. One of my kids is now an inclusion teaching assistant apprentice, basically her dream to work with kids across all ages across this trust, and we regularly discuss how she was glad she hadn't had to deal with what she sees primary kids having to deal with.
I spend far more sending my kids to schools than I did home educating them. It is much easier to home educate 'for free' than it is to do school for free. Just the amount I spend on uniforms and PE kit alone each year would be more than enough for home education and their clothes, never mind other supplies, transport, contribution requests, donation events... then there is the college that required gear be bought before starting that wasn't even used in the first year of the course.
School has been cheaper is when it comes to exams, by a long shot, I'm in an area where exam access is very difficult outside of school and costs for private candidates are high when you can get a place. It's also cheaper for certain extracurricular activities, and - in college - certain equipment that it would be very difficult and costly to access otherwise.
Decent is location specific - where I am was an education black hole for decades, though it has improved recently, it still has many issues.
Also, while probably the most common route, not all home educators involve a parent not working. Some work different shifts to take turns as educator, some work from home with older children using online schools, some use childcare while working with long shifts a few days a week to be able to have more days to be able to be at home, and since COVID there has been a significant rise in home education tutor groups in the UK that some parents use while working, though again, that's mostly with older children.