I agree with you that there is a deeper problem if choice of programming languages makes you miserable (with the possible exception of the situation where thing

I agree with you that there is a deeper problem if choice of programming languages makes you miserable (with the possible exception of the situation where things are so bad that it makes it difficult for you to do your job and that makes you miserable). At the same time though, I think you might be writing off the link between choice of programming language too easily. Rather than pens, where there is relatively little difference even between a fountain pen and a ballpoint, a better example might be a carpenter choosing between power tools and hand tools. There are definitely carpenters who are strongly specialized in using hand tools who would not enjoy being forced to use power tools. I suspect this may boil down to different people coming to programming for different reasons. Some people are primarily interested in the end product of programming while others are interested in the process of using code to build abstractions. My opinion is that room should be made for each approach.