That's fine, but FWIW if I had to strictly choose between the two, I too would also optimize for passion over expertise (of course it's never a binary choice in

That's fine, but FWIW if I had to strictly choose between the two, I too would also optimize for passion over expertise (of course it's never a binary choice in the real world). Though I think it has more to do with the kind of developer I am and the kinds of developers I've enjoyed working with in the past than anything intrinsic about how much value they might be able to provide to the company. Luckily for me, I've noticed that frontend developers (especially those who like to work for startups) tends to be a very self-selecting group that biases towards passion. Those who don't have at least some amount of passion for frontend development would probably very soon realize they'd be happier specializing in some other ecosystem and migrate away (as you yourself did).