"didn't require much of an education"

Have you ever tried to move one single cow? Now would you consider trying to move a whole group of cows, without someone educating you how to do so?

Probably not I think. It certainly takes lots of education to become a skilled cowboy. But it required no school education. And more people grew up with horses than with books(back then) so the low pay was because of high supply, not because it was a simple job.

Maybe due to decades of the romanticized "cowboy" shown by Hollywood?

But also, maybe what you described is something people respect, even though they wouldn't want to actually do it themselves.

Well that is a pretty common trope the US, where red states applaud the independent blue collar worker, and blue states look down on them, unless they are part of a union.

Like a slave plantation forever stuck in a unproductive quagmire?