It's rough because, like many backend type jobs, the best thing that can happen is nothing breaks. Incremental improvements in stability or scalability will not

It's rough because, like many backend type jobs, the best thing that can happen is nothing breaks. Incremental improvements in stability or scalability will not be noticed, but every single change you make is a massive risk of a page at 2am, all-nighters trying to fix things, outage reports, incident reports, root cause analysis reports, etc. You're stuck between process and outcome. You have to constantly fight the urge to just never touch anything.