Are Adventurers/PCs in Old School (0e-2e) and OSR games supposed to be social deviants?

I've been thinking a lot of what type of play and what kind of characters the 3e-5.5e games encourage. It seems like a lot of modules basically encourage players being good and heroic do-gooders in a society where adventuring is generally socially accepted the same way going to college is considered a "good thing".

However in old school games, the adventurers tend to start out as extremely weak peasants looking for glory, despite just one pit trap away from certain death. Usually those dungeons aren't cleared to save the world, but just because treasures wait inside. So unless the PCs are exceptionally greedy and thrill-seeking or desperate for money, this would be extremely irresponsible behavior with poor RoI in any medieval agricultural society.

I would therefore argue that in Old School games, the PCs start out as "low-life" characters and glory seekers, which is in stark contrast to how the PCs are socially perceived in Modern D&D.

Would you agree? Or am I totally off-base in this assumption?