Your post came at a good time for me. I've been working as a programmer / engineer for the better part of two decades now. I'm self-taught, have plenty of code

Your post came at a good time for me. I've been working as a programmer / engineer for the better part of two decades now. I'm self-taught, have plenty of code in production at several (small/medium) companies doing millions a year in business. I have recently started interviewing again, and it's exactly as you state it: 40-50 hours a week working, and another 20 or so on Leetcode. It's exhausting to put in all this work knowing that much of it is unlikely to be needed outside of the interview setting. A couple of the recruiters have even said as much (Literally that the interview prep material is unrelated to the day to day work for the position). Glad to see I'm not alone in this.